Skillet

Known for making absolute genius use of many different genres of music like industrial rock, hard rock and symphonic rock and incorporating it with their religious Christian lyrics, Skillet have been able to sweep considerable success over the years. Founded in 1996, Memphis, Tennessee based band comes from Elvis Presley's hometown. The current members of the band include the lead vocalist and bassist, John Cooper. Playing the rhythm guitar as well as the keyboard is the vocalist and the wife of John, Korey Cooper. Ben Kasica is the lead guitarist whereas on drums is the newest member of the band who is also a vocalist, Jen Ledger.

The Christian rock band has made considerable success in the rock music arena. Their unique sound and their choice in music genre set them apart from the rest of the Christian bands. Not many Christian rock bands incorporate hard rock with industrial as well as symphonic rock. It is this experimentation with their sound that has enabled Skillet to have strong, loyal fans at the grass root of rock music. Religion plays a strong role in the band's sound and most of their lyrics and songs have either direct or indirect religious or spiritual underpinnings. The artists in this band just like any other musical group keep changing with the tone and sound of their music. Where now there are 4 members currently working under the title of Skillet, the band, there have been many who have been in and out of the band. The former members include some big names like Trey McClurkin, Chris Marvin and Lori Peters. The other ex members of the band are Ken Steorts and Kevin Haaland.

Skillet was founded my John Cooper and Ken Steorts, the former star guitarist of Seraph, another very popular Tennessee music band. Cooper and Ken were pretty much poles apart when it came to their style of music. Ken had been working on progressive rock with his former band whereas Cooper was knee deep in religious or more accurately Christian rock. So they both started Skillet as an experiment. Trey McClurkin joined the band soon after but only as a temporary drummer. Skillet had only played together for a month when ForeFront Records, a major Christian record label made an irresistible offer to the band and that is how in 1996 Skillet's debut album came out. In 1997, the band worth on their second title Hey You, I Love You Soul, but it was not released until April 1998. Soon after, Cooper's wife, Korey joined the band.

When the band began working on their 3rd album, Invincible, Ken left the band and Kevin Haaland replaced him as the new lead guitarist. Korey Cooper had become a permanent band member by this time. This proved to be a great change in the sound and style of the third album and it became more electronic. When this album came out in 2000, it became the best selling Skillet album and remains so thus far. Unfortunately, Trey McClurkin also left the band right after the release of this album. It was then that Lori Peters joined the band as drummer.

It was this very set which produced the first worship album by the name of Ardent Worship in 2000. The album was superbly met in the Christian market and all of a sudden Skillet was no 1 Christian rock bands. During this time, Haaland parted ways with Cooper and was replaced with Ben Kasica. Alien Youth was the other album where the band used the same electronic sound which it had so successfully incorporated in the mighty hit album Invincible. But since the album was released while the band was touring, it was not met as warmly as some of the earlier albums. It was also John Cooper's first album as the producer of Skillet.

Collide, was released by Ardent Records in 2003. But the Head of A & R of Lava Records, Andy Karp was so impressed by the album that his company, Lava Records bought the rights to Collide in 2004 and was rereleased in May 2004 with an additional track 'Open Wounds'. The sound of this album was heavily influenced by Payable on Death and Linkin' Park's music.

The 2006 released album of Comatose was another success but it was also the last album or Lori the drummer. Before leaving, Lori agreed on training the new replacement Jen Ledger. Skillet produced a new album, Comatose Comes Alive. The coming album is called Awake. 13 years of band's music making has earned it two Grammy nominations as well as the status of being one of the most beloved Christian bands today. Grab your Skillet tickets today, for the love of God!