SKILLET To Release 'Really Aggressive' And 'Very Passionate' New Album This Summer

SKILLET frontman John Cooper has revealed to Rocked that the first single from the band's new album will arrive this week. The group will simultaneously reveal the title and the cover artwork for the disc, which will be released this summer.

Speaking about the musical direction of SKILLET's follow-up to 2016's "Unleashed", John said: "I think it's got more teeth. It feels really aggressive — a very passionate record. And some of that's probably 'cause my wife Korey, who's also in the band — she plays guitar — me and her produced the whole record ourselves. There's a few songs that other people did, but we did seven of the tracks ourselves. So, some of it was, like, you know what? We don't have to have anybody go, 'Dude, that's a little much. It's not pop enough, it's not commercial enough. It's too long.' We just kind of were off the leash. And we really had a great time making it."

At some of its recent concerts, SKILLET has been performed two new songs live, apparently titled "Rise Up" and "Dead Man Walking".

Last fall, John told Consequence Of Sound that SKILLET's next album would "be a bit heavier" than 2016's "Unleashed". But, he added, "We're going to have those arena anthems and also some duets with Jen [Ledger, drummer] and me, which our fans love. I'm excited for it."

"Unleashed" was recently certified gold after accumulating half a million certified units. The distinction follows on the success of lead single "Feel Invincible", which was gold-certified in 2018. "Unleashed" is the fourth consecutive SKILLET record to receive certification of either gold, platinum or double platinum.