The nerve—the sheer, barefaced fucking temerity—of Skillet to release an album called Revolution. To be revolutionary, you need to know how to make progress, which has always been a vast impossibility for Skillet. Without quarter, they’re one of the most useless bands in the entire radio-metal sphere, incapable of quality, or new ideas, or even the vaguest concern for forward motion.
Oh, and there’s also frontman John Cooper with his fundamentalist Christian values that have seen him break into alt-right spheres of discussion. He now seems to be following the cues of his fellow right-wing, middle-aged neckbeards, grandstanding about tearing down what America has become, and parroting away all the usual punditry that wields religion as its main defence. Really, though, it’s no different to the normal culture war slop these types spew out uninhibited. If it were, his own book on the subject would have a title evocative of greater purpose than—no word of a lie—Wimpy, Weak, & Woke. It’s free on Amazon if you wanna give it a read, though time is an infinitely more valuable commodity to waste than money.
Anyway, Revolution is an album about Cooper being a good, Christian trad-husband and protecting his family from the evil gays and wokes. After all, he’s got so much to fight for, as All That Matters states—his faith, his family, and his freedom. Hell yeah! What a true patriot! But, oh!—is our red-blooded protagonist doubting himself on Fire Inside Me? Are the big, scary wokes too strong? Not if Defector has anything to say about it, Cooper’s impassioned ballad about standing his ground and continuing the charge for those he loves, like a real American hero. Almost brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it?
So, yeah, obviously it’s the lamest thing ever. This is music exclusively for the people who share Facebook memes about how being a white, Conservative nuclear family is now the ‘counterculture’. But what makes it really, really funny is how Skillet genuinely believe they’re dishing out some radical missive. Not at all surprising for a band that’s totally humourless at the best of times, but you’d think this supposed war they’re waging had some actual severity behind it, rather than placating a demographic prone to meltdowns whenever a woman shows up in Star Wars. Just look at Unpopular, where a stone-faced Cooper refuses to fold for speaking his mind, so much so that he views himself as “an outlaw”. He means it, too, when he uses no-no words like “hell”, and asserts how everything you see these days is like “clown TV”. Yep, that’s almost a Nazi dogwhistle on this Skillet album—isn’t that nice?!
Of course, Revolution isn’t dreck of the highest order just for its politics. If Johnny Socialism & The Workers’ Rights released this exact thing, it’d still be god-awful, because there’s no redeeming how atrocious it sounds. This is Skillet’s 12th album, and yet they constantly seem like they don’t know the first thing about making rock music that’s impactful. They blow their limited load as early as possible with a guitar solo on opener Showtime, before proceeding to live up to their calling as the Christian-rock versions of themselves—uniformly toothless and edgeless from how little shame they have about watering themselves down. You’d be lucky to hear a guitar or bass with some weight or muscle. Meanwhile, any strings always sound fake, as they congeal among the amorphous gloop that’s considered ‘production’. And there’s never any colour or energy as a single point to hold things together. Why would there be, when songs like Showtime and Death Defier rely on gallumphing, laborious thuds to sound halfway ‘imposing’?
Worst of all, though, is Cooper himself, who sounds fucking abysmal. As yet more evidence for right-wing mouthpieces not needing talent to find success, his voice is completely gone, craggy and misshapen in a way that gives off less wizened experience, and more a throat that hasn’t been taken care of properly and is about ready to blow out. Living up to the alpha-male, leader-of-the-pack persona just seems too hard for him; he’s trying to push himself into it when it clearly isn’t natural for him. Thus, when he incessantly barks and bellows his words—or puts to record one of the most pitiful attempts at a scream maybe ever on Not Afraid—it sounds feeble and frail. And when you consider how an element of pride informs this album and likely prevents Jen Ledger from chipping in too much (despite her having a much better voice when she does), it’s a total failure. Nowhere is that better exemplified than Happy Wedding Day (Alex’s Song), a sappy dedication to Cooper’s daughter that’d already have limited mileage for anyone outside of the family, let alone the fanbase, but the crags and cracks in his voice are impossible to look past. It’s a nice, if cloying, sentiment destroyed by simple ineptitude.
With that song alone, you’re almost tempted to take pity on Skillet a little. Almost. It’s not hard to re-remember why that should never even be a thought—they’re already hopeless at everything anyway. They can’t even peddle borderline fascistic attitudes correctly. For Cooper’s assertions of not being afraid to speak his mind, he sure doesn’t seem to have the spine to put that on wax, lest the radio-rock ecosystem that’s given Skillet their entire career see fit to cast them off. In truth, they’re no different from the alt-right and evangelical grifters they’ve ingratiated themselves amongst, selling easy swill to a crowd who’ll lap it up because they’re too afraid of having their worldviews even slightly challenged. Truly, utterly, avariciously shameless.
For fans of: a nice Sunday morning at the megachurch
‘Revolution’ by Skillet is released on 1st November.
Words by Luke Nuttall
I have to hold my hands up and admit I just Googled ‘Johnny Socialism & The Workers’ Rights’, just in case.
You sound like a retarded liberal
You say that this album is for people who are afraid to have their worldview challenged. Interestingly, this album has clearly challenged YOUR worldview, and you have had a bad reaction to it. All I saw was a bunch of buzzwords like “fascism” and “alt-right” and “nazism.” Care to elaborate on how this album backs those ideologies? Or are you content to just throw terms out there to see if they stick? It seems to have REALLY gotten under your skin that a band decided to use their free speech and voice where they stand on a few issues. Why does that bother you so much? Maybe a good question to ask yourself. If you don’t like the sound of the music, that’s just fine. You can have that opinion. I think you took a very unprofessional approach if you expect to be taken seriously as a reviewer—But you have the right to say what you said, just as much as I have the right to leave this comment. That’s the beauty of America. I’m sorry the album ruined your day. I genuinely feel bad for you that it bothered you this much. Take care mate!
I’m not a fan of the album but that was a truly pathetic review
Wow, this review has got to be the most useless one.
I’ve never seen someone so angry at Skillet before. Their message is a fantastic one and they all sound amazing and each song is different. And Jen Ledger gets plenty of time to shine. Is being a part of a loving family you’d die for a bad thing now? Can people not express their love without getting hated on by this society? Like what is your problem dude, you woke up and chose war for no reason on a good album, don’t review if you don’t like it next time cause there will be a next time.
DON’T HAVE AN OPINION UNLESS IT’S MINE.
Clearly we listened to two completely different albums and you know nothing about Skillet, it’s members, or the message they try to promote. Traditional values HAVE become the counterculture in a world that values DEI, critical race theory, and LGBTism. Jen gets plenty of time to shine lyrically, and she only plays arguably the most important instrument in a band at the drums. It feels like Skillet touched on their roots while still trying something new. The ballad to their daughter isn’t meant for anyone except the fans, whom the band sees as family. Lost of people have grown up with Skillet, they’re only one of the most successful rock bands of the 21st century. John’s voice sounds fine, what lacked was proper mixing on some of the tracks, which is to be expected on a band’s first independent album, but even if his voice is going out, he’s only been the front man for a rock band for nearly 30 years. 🙄. It’s clear you can’t be objective when it comes to Skillet, so why write a review at all? Music is an art form and all art is subjective, but what you don’t get to do is attack the band, it’s values, and it’s fanbase simply because you don’t like it.
When did Skillet hurt you?
The nerve of this review being made lol. Your anti Christian bias is showing. I’m hearing a lot of hate for what Skillet stands for and not any real critique of their music and the album. Get another day job. PS. This band has been rocking for over 20 years, they must be doing something right
Someone got butthurt about a banger of an album!
Poor guy could barely type this review in-between his rage induced tears, let all have pity him and shower this poor attention starved rat bastard the love he so clearly never got from his divorced deadbeat dad.
DAMN DAN GOT EM SO BAD
I haven’t laughed out loud in months and this fucking review had me dying. Beautifully written, and all the proof you need is a quick scroll down to the comments sections full of angry threatened waterheads arguing about politics and just instantly redlining into lashing out. I would be intimidated honestly reviewing a band not just so horrible, but in the blandest most vapid, innocuous way. Where do you even start? But the writer sums it up with such pithy eloquence in ways my caveman brain isn’t capable.
Also people, music taste is subjective and different to each individual. This is a fucking review, typing defenses and personal attacks is dumb as fuck. The way it works is you find a reliable source of reviews that cover material you enjoy but also offer alternate opinions and become a reliable meter stick for a standard of quality. Typing disjointed paragraphs defending the bands “message” or using the word “liberal” doesn’t do anything. This is a refined opinion from a person who writes for a living. Skillet isn’t taking the stand on a fucking murder trial. Sorry the typed werds about your maga band made you angrwy. Life goes on.
Probably a good idea to not review an album from a band that you despise, it shows your bias and makes for a weak review of an album that you already decided was bad before you listened to it.
This was the funniest review I’ve read in a long time. The sad part is that there isn’t a single lie being told here. The reviewer was able to successfully articulate and put into words everything I’ve been saying about Skillet since 2016 when they noticeably started going down this road with their album “Unleashed.” That was when they started aggressively shifted from “a rock band that sometimes mentions God” to “a megachurch praise band that sometimes gets mainstream radio play.” They’ve completely gotten off track from the type of band they were in the Collide days, which is honestly a shame because of how talented of musicians they actually are when they choose to flex their muscle.
To address the angry people leaving comments here – these folks are a perfect representation of what it means to be brainwashed, and a shining example of the mindset Skillet’s fandom has and how intolerant they are to having their worldview challenged, even if it’s only slightly. It also goes to show how easily manipulated Skillet’s core base is, which also explains why they lap up such terrible, far-right-pandering drivel disguised as music and call it a masterpiece. When one is brainwashed, they can easily call dog crap gold, and treat it as such. But I digress. I look forward to reading more of your reviews, as this honestly just hit it on the head.
pathetic review