The best thing about Skillet’s new EP is that, unlike its abhorrent predecessor Revolution, it’s not another jingoistic, anti-woke power fantasy. The second best thing? Erm…well, it’s pretty short?
Alright, to be fair, there’s a bit of due credit to account for on After The Storm. Unlike plenty of their contemporaries in radio-rock and Christian-rock, this isn’t just another languishing in the airless, overpolished filth that is their modern output. In a move that would blindside Nostradamus himself, Skillet have taken some initiative, looking to recapture the energy of their earlier work. That’s still Skillet to a T, but at least some people like Collide. That counts for something, right?
Well, there has been an improvement since last time. By keeping on the straight and narrow of current-day hard rock, there’s nothing on After The Storm that’s ideologically contemptible. This is Skillet clocking in for as honest a shift as they can muster, leaving the ten-ton baggage of Revolution firmly behind them. In doing so, songs like Scream and Lift Me Up punch a bit harder, and the title track is even a little energetic. The production could do with sounding more organic to match, but, hey—baby steps.
Of course, any improvement is immediately crushed under the fact that, as a Skillet release, it sucks by default. What hope of reliving a heyday is there from one of the most slavishly bound-to-format bands currently operating? Skillet have no ideas or creative drive anymore; it’s why Jon Cooper dabbles in the right-wing grift-sphere as it is. And even if After The Storm is a mild improvement, does that say much when what came before was completely odious from front to back?
At a baseline, After The Storm is scooping up crumbs for something to call its own. As far as wholly brand new ideas go, the stabs and squeals on Grave Stomper come from a bit deeper in Skillet’s wheelhouse, not unexpected but not dusted off as often, either. By comparison, Scream, Lift Me Up and Come And Find Me could’ve been plucked from any point in this band’s catalogue, with their fundamental lack of advancement on full display. A band 30 years into their career should be aiming higher than this. And yet, when that’s what Revolution ultimately was, Skillet have painted themselves into the tightest of corners, from which there’s little hope of escape.
Not that that bothers them, of course. They’re a radio-rock band, so kowtowing to the most base, broad, switch-your-brain-off impulses is all good for them. There’s a place for that, of course, and in Skillet’s case, it’s the bin. Superficial bigness is the only hurdle they’re qualified to clear, if Scream and Lift Me Up are any indication. Grave Stomper might aspire to be more, but it’s really just a good, old-fashioned, cognitively dissonant ‘fuck the haters’ song. “I was being slandered,” says Jon Cooper of this track, “but I knew those untrue words didn’t have any power over me.” So little power, naturally, that he felt the need to write an entire song about it, calling it “an everyday nightmare inside of [his] head”. At least ‘grave stomper’ is an unfeasibly hard coinage for a Christian-rock band of all things to drum up. If that’s too aggressive and scary for the Panheads to handle, though, there’s always Heaven Help Us, venerating the Big G with all the fluff and quasi-conservatism you’d expect from religious music.
A cynical man might even say that’s the fallback to cover for Cooper’s terrible singing voice…so, yeah, that’s what I’m saying. He sounded shot on Revolution and it’s just as bad on After The Storm, almost to the point of no return. Even the most magnanimous production job can’t make Lift Me Up sound good, a song that’s fixed in a normal range with no gymnastics or histrionics required. There’s an awful, uncared-for quality to Cooper’s voice, craggy in a way that, on Heaven Help Us, rips and tears away at what’s supposed to be a cleaner ballad. When he does push himself, it’s even worse. The screams on—where else?—Scream sound as though they were physically painful to produce, and are no better elsewhere.
So, there we go, then—After The Storm. It sure is a Skillet release, and it sure has come out in 2026. It’s a relatively harmless one, to be charitable about it, but what exactly does that count for? Even to take it in the best faith imaginable and say that Skillet really are trying to re-stoke their old fire, that doesn’t amount to anything. At best, you’ve got a couple of inoffensive hard rock songs that could’ve come from anyone; at worst…it’s Skillet. The Panheads will love it, though as usual, how worthy of consideration are the opinions of a group who actively call themselves ‘Panheads’?
For fans of: Three Days Grace, Thousand Foot Krutch, RED
‘After The Storm’ by Skillet is released on 9th October.
Words by Luke Nuttall
