Customer Reviews

Skillet

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A friend introduced me to this CD by saying that "they sound kinda like monks chanting," and told me to turn up the volume so I could hear it. Hear it I did - and nearly fell off my chair!! I haven't turned the volume down since. After listening to it 1000s of times, I am still blown away by the quality and craftmanship of the music! It was about my 500th time through "I Can" when I first heard the piano accompaniment in the background, and that attention to detail brought me to my knees. The entire album flows from the first song to the last to the point where it seems to be one song with ten different movements. I listen to a lot of different styles of Christian music, and this album, and its follow-up (Hey You- I Love Your Soul), are the only two which consistently bring me to my knees before the Lord in humble submission and eternal praise. It also features the best videos and interviews of any enhanced Christian CD I've seen.

This CD is so good, and the thing is how the lyrics are just so deep that it is addictive! skillet preaches an outstanding message and the powerful vocals mixed with great bass and electric guitars and a drummer with a great sense of beat... it just rocks is all I can say! to me, they are a lot like the modern Christian form of a limp bizkit, korn, fuel or our lady peace... "I can" and "gasoline" all rock and the acoustic "Saturn" is a great touch to the CD, overall, this CD is a great lineup and could be the greatest Christian album ever, definitely one of them!

I met this band just recently and they are really awesome! They are truely dedicated to what they believe in. This album says so. They sung their song "Saturn" at one of the concerts i went to and they changed Saturn to Heaven. I thought that was really cool! They are just an awesome band that rocks and let's others know that you can't stereotype christian music. It's not just that gospel stuff, it is anything that sings about God and belief. I really love this band! Check them out! :)-<--<:|8

This album contains some great rockers such as Paint, I Can, and My Beautiful Robe along side amazing ballads such as Saturn and Safe With You. This is an all around amazing album that has passionate lyrics that convey deep messages about God and Christ coupled with outstanding vocals and instrumentals.

Though i don't own the biggest Christian Rock collection, I know this is the best I've heard in a long time. The songwriting is excellent, the lyrics make you think, and each track stands up for the excellence. If you want to expand your collection, buy this. Instead of the rapcore Christian that I usually hear, this is the best it is within its own style.

I appreciate this band greatly. God is the great imaginator and He certainly blessed this group with creativity, imagination, and an understanding of His Word. God finds beauty in the product of His imagination, that being creation, and we, being made in His image have the same privilage of enjoying the arts and specifically the variety of music that can be performed to His glory. Skillet is easily my favorite Christian band (with Audio A. following close behind) and all three of their albums are terrific. Special thanks to John for his encouraging concert at Drey Cafe, and best wishes to you and your wife.

I'm a latecomer to Panheadom. I picked up their self-titled as the final component of my five-strong Skillet collection, already well-versed in the sounds of Invincible, Alien Youth, and Hey You, I Love Your Soul. The result was immediate suprise for me, and a monthlong vacation in my disc rack's nether regions for the unfortunate CD.

Despite my first impression, Skillet's Forefront debut is actually quite good. It sounds very little like any of the others. This is from before the electronic sampling frenzy that gave Hey You it's distinctive edge. Skillet was a novice threesome with a surprisingly tight sound, just beginning to pull together the musical chemistry that makes a band a band.

The music has more grunge in it than any of their subsequent work. I Can, Beautiful Robe, Paint, and Promise Blender are tight, edgy guitar tunes, split up by a handful of more upbeat songs. The radio-friendly acoustic single Saturn (included ad infinitum on contemporary compilation albums) and the original worship song Safe With You provide counterpoint to their unpolished rock edge. The penultimate song, Boundaries, opens with a distinctly un-Skillet guitar hook that sounds like it was ripped from a Lenny Kravitz CD before John's rasp takes us to the song's anthemic chorus. Splinter closes the album on a peppy note.

For someone just getting into Skillet's music, I would advise starting with either Alien Youth or Hey You, I Love Your Soul before digging back down to their roots. This record is less pulled-together than either of those CDs, though it certainly earns its place alongside (or just above) Invincible and Ardent Worship. The awkwardness of certain filler tracks bumps the album down to a four, but it's a respectable early effort from a powerhouse of underappreciated alterna-rock. Headbang with me.

This is skillets 1st cd.If you guys like collide,than youl dig skillets self titled debut.its a simple rock sound but done to perfection.not much ,if any mixing on this cd was required since korey wasnt with the band yet and only 3 in the band,yet it still worked very well, i can boundries and splinter are awsome! there sound wasnt quite as polished as on collide,of course ,but a great debut never the less!!! i highly recomending this album! its more like the style used for the collide album. just a raw, rockin'- sound as opposed to the techno rock in the later albums.this is a must have for all christian rock lovers.in may ,i believe, skillets new cd will be released i cant wait!!! ROCK ON!!!

I have really enjoyed Skillet's recent albums so I decided to go back and check out their stuff from the early days. It is ok, but not on a par with their recent work.

In particular, I think that their album Comatose is superb. This one is average. The music ranges from quite mellow to very hard rock. The lyrics are all good. They definitely had a Christian message in the early days just as they do now.

My recommendation would be to check out Comatose as mentioned above and Ardent Worship: Skillet Live first.

Skillet is a megaband right now, complete with a big following and plenty of airplay on both mainstream rock and Christian stations. But before they hit it big, they went through several musical genre changes and line-up switches, to the point that only frontman John Cooper remains of the original 3-man band. Skillet's self-titled album was their first musical offering, and I wanted to give it a look to see what they sounded like way back in 1996, when I was just a fifth grader who barely knew that rock music existed (I spent my time dreaming of owning a better bike. And perhaps a pony).

There's no denying the grunge sound, though it varies some. Skillet sounds like Nirvana on most songs, but with less mumbling and not as great guitars, though on "Gasoline", they distinctly sound like Alice in Chains, and the background tune on "Safe With You" reminds me of Sugar Ray's "Someday". The lyrics sometimes fall a little short, like in "I Can"s line "feeling underrooted/ Feeling undermined". Underrooted just feels like it's not quite the right word here, not unless the rest of the lyrics were similarly artsy. The "Gasoline" lyrics seem to ramble a little, and the words elsewhere can fall on the simplistic side.

My favorites: 1. "I Can". I do like how the song goes from loud to quiet and back again. When listening to rock music, I like to be shaken up a bit, and the end of "I Can" would be excellent for moshing. 2. "Saturn" is a lovely slowed-down song about trusting in the things you can't see, such as the rings of Saturn. It's a great break from the rock aggression of the previous songs. 3. "My Beautiful Robe" is great for the sheer rhythm of it, and the words read like mildly disturbing poetry.

Upsides: The vocals are great. John Cooper's raw-sounding voice is always astounding, no matter whether he's singing or howling the lines. Plus, the images on the album are appropriately rough. For example, soaking a heart in gasoline and burning it up becomes the image of growing selfless and giving your life over to God. Very hardcore, but it's not any harsher of an image than Scripture's own suggestion of picking up our crosses daily.

The Christianity is absolutely unabashed, here. The lyrics were clearly written by someone who loves Jesus and leaves no doubts about who the songs are referring to. The Biblical references are solid, mentioning the "rooster crowing" as a symbol of waking up and realizing you've betrayed the Lord, as Peter did in the gospels. "My Beautiful Robe" references Moses' burning bush, and conflates the image of Jesus wearing a robe and crown of thorns with a person who shows off their beautiful outward life, but still has to realize the truth that human righteousness doesn't amount to anything in the eyes of God. "Safe With You" has the great lines: "Lifting up my voice/ To the God who really sees/ The God who is consumed/ With loving thoughts of me".

Skillet is a short album that's not something I'd pick out and put in the CD player for fun, but it's always great to see a band's roots. Some of the songs sound discordant to me, but the few that have appealing riffs point toward the good places where Skillet eventually arrived.