Skillet – Vital signs

Skillet are an American Christian rock band who have released eight studio albums over the past 18 years.  They’ve sold over two million albums in the US alone, and tour heavily there.  The band have managed to do what most Christian rock bands fail to do – they’ve managed to move out of the realm of Christian rock and into the mainstream, partly due to their relentless touring, but primarily from the strength of their music.  It’s a pretty remarkable success story since generally “Christian rock” means total rubbish and no success, but Skillet are clearly the exception to the rule.

“Vital signs” is a new compilation album that is being released in Europe and which contains ten tracks taken from the band’s last three studio albums.  It’s a very good album – the Christian rock label meant I was wary about it before hitting play, but this really did surpass my expectations, and rather than being a good christian rock album (ie the best of a bad bunch) it’s simply a very good album.  It’s going to appeal to fans of rock bands such as Papa roach or maybe Shinedown.  It’s not overly preachy either – yes the songs may have a Christian message but while many Christian rock albums feel like a preachers sermon set to music, that’s not the case here.

Check out the video for “Monster” below and hear for yourself how they sound.

Ignore the Christian rock label and give Skillet a listen – they’re well worth checking out.  This is an album aimed at new fans – existing fans will no doubt have the three most recent albums so this compilation will be of little interest to them, but for new fans wanting to hear more from Skillet then this is a good starting point.

Track listing:

1. Rebirthing
2. Monster
3. Awake and alive
4. The last night
5. Whispers in the dark
6. Not gonna die
7. Comatose
8. Hero
9. Sick of it
10. Rise