Skillet's new album "Awake" takes everything
they did in Comatose and...well..
does the exact same thing,If your a Skillet fan, and you don't already have this,
I'd say go for it,
however if you are not a fan of Skillet..
this is not going to change your mind.
In my eyes most of the songs on "Awake"
sound like they should of been on "Comatose"...
nothing has really changed,
and I'm not saying anything is wrong with that.
The album starts off with the popular Christian radio single "Hero" it's catchy
and has that Skillet flavor...I.E cool riff
with a mixture of the female vocals thrown in.
This is where a slight improvement comes in
over "Comatose"
Guitars and drums and all that sound good and
are inline with songs you'd here on "Comatose"
but thats not an improvement obviously,
what is you ask? well..it's the female vocals that have been slightly upgraded,
and thats because instead of Korey
backing up John it's Jen the drummer who adds the female vocals. To be honest,
I think she sounds like Lacy from Flyleaf,
and how awesome is that? it's like you got
John with his great vocal talent being backed up by
Lacy from Flyleaf, can't think of it being much better
then that. although it's only in a couple songs..
"Hero" is the Skillet staple..it's skillet to the core. Skillet
seems to be always good at hooking you in with their first couple of songs..
"Awake" is no different as following the song "Hero" is "Monster".
"Monster" has a killer riff and the whole beat of the song is great, however
there is a flaw in my eyes with the song...while the lyrics
are not exactly amazing or even original,in fact they are on the cheesy side..
that's really not the problem I have with the song.
The problem I have with the song is.. the song gets real cheesy at 2:17
where the growl/guitar syth comes in and Ben says "Feel like a monster"
Now don't get me wrong I have no problem with a good growl
or a whole song with nothing but growls, but Skillet doing it?
and overall just the way it is done seems over the top and cheesy,
thankfully though it's almost towards the very end of the song.
Now "Monster" is followed by the typical Skillet third song,
what do I mean by that? it's simple...it's a slow poppy kind of song.
You see Skillet, like most bands out there, have a system
they seem to live by with their albums...it's rock your face off
with the first couple of songs then slow it down on the third.
The song is called "Don't Wake me" it's alright for what it is,
and it's one of those songs that I'll probably end up
listening to more often, but right now it's usually a song I skip passed,
and that might be because the fourth song "Awake and alive"
is by far my favorite song on the whole album.
It's got what I love about Skillet written all over it,
it's got the violins mixed perfectly with the guitars/drums..
it's got the female vocals and awesome strong anthem lyrics.
If you buy music on Itunes and you are looking for one song
to get from this album this would be it. The fifth song
"One Day too late" is another slower song much like "don't wake me"
there's really nothing that really jumps out at me as special.
The sixth song "It's not me it's you"
picks up the pace a little bit but it's really nothing to write home about.
The seventh song "Should've when you could've" kind
of goes right along with the sixth song as it's nothing very special.
The eighth song "Believe" is another slow Skillet song..
however it is a slower song that I actually like, the guitar work
in this song seems to really show the talent of Ben, this is
where he shines. The lyrics are great, but really Ben's guitar
work is the reason to listen to the song, and to be honest
the opening acoustic guitar work sounds a little bit like 3 doors down,
which isn't a knock at all. The ninth song "Forgiven"
has that Skillet piano/strings touch and catchy chorus
and it seems to be a song that grows on me the more I listen to it.
The 10th song "Sometimes" picks the pace back up,
and it is backed with a good riff and lyrics one of my favorites
on "awake". the eleventh song "Never surrender" seems to be
like this albums version of "The older I get" which again is a slower song
but it has it's moments. Finally there is "Lucy" which is another
ballad and it's kind of hard to judge it
because it seems to be directed to someone who has passed on,
and it is a beautiful song in memory of that person.
In the end Skillets "Awake" seems to be "Comatose 1.5"
it has it's moments, like I said nothing is really new..
and if you don't like Skillet this isn't for you, but for fans of Skillet
and their work, specially fans of the "Comatose" album
there really is no reason not to buy this.
There is is a solid amount of songs, I mean five good
song is pretty good for one album.
Personally though if you pop in Comatose after hearing Awake
you'll think why wasn't Awake/Comatose just one album,
I don't think there is enough in Awake that makes it stand above Comatose
I'm going to give "Awake" a 3 1/2 out of 5...
As again there is nothing that stands out...
that is really amazingly better then comatose..
in the end it's Comatose 1.5
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