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happymetalgirl · 5 years

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Skillet - Victorious

I won’t lie, Skillet was a small part of my musical adolescence; I liked the uplifting, Linkin-Park-inspired alternative metal heaviness of Collide and the parts of Comatose that came closest to that. But since Awake, the band have just been on such a downward trajectory as their radio rock success has cornered them into reproducing the same formulaic Christian hard rock into oblivion. 2013′s Rise was chocked full of stale attempts at recapturing of the essence of “Hero” and “Awake and Alive” from the previous album due to their chart-topping success, and that was the last time I listened to a new Skillet album. I didn’t have any desire to listen to Unleashed when it came out in 2016, but I figured I’d check back in this year and see what Skillet were up to with their tenth studio album, Victorious, and God I wish I hadn’t.

I have said on here before that I think the offensiveness of Imagine Dragons' meteoric success through mediocrity is often overstated, their omnipresence just annoying status for the time being much in the same way that Nickelback's was back in their peak of relevance. But while I would definitely rather get stuck listening to Imagine Dragons than most of the other top 40 drivel, I will agree that they are really annoying and I grimace a bit any time I'm stuck somewhere where I have to hear their songs. What has been more annoying even than their music itself has been how pretty much any band trying to break onto the Billboard top charts is copping Imagine Dragons' brand of hollow, overproduced arena rock grandiosity, and that it exactly what it happening here with Skillet on Victorious.

I still haven't listened to Unleashed, and Victorious has not made me eager to go back and hear it, so I don't know how much of this they were doing on that album, but I truly can't imagine it being as horrifically, transparently focus-grouped and disastrously executed as it has been on this album. The production on here is right in line with what is expected of bands trying to get in on Imagine Dragons' radio success. From the thin, artificial, overdone arena rock drum pounds that sound devoid of any really invigorating punch, to the gutless and overly synthetic production that gives the guitars the bite of a newborn kitten.

The songwriting too is equally appallingly formulaic and, again, focus-grouped, with the predictable token throwback to the band's heavier sound on the closing track "Back to Life" (ironically titled there, Skillet), being the only diversion from the drab, sterile, and downright annoyingly repetitive compositions, and the songs aren't just repetitive in their use of the same motifs within them over and over again, but also in their consistent approach across the track list. And again, it's all really predictable; the reptitive "woahs" and chorus refrains, the bland vocal melody features from drummer Jen Ledger, the super processed delivery of the vaguely Christian lyrics about getting up and fighting. It is a truly annoying album.

And look, Skillet has never been the most original band on the planet; Collide was very derivative, and the band have been following the trends of radio-friendly alternative metal since then. But the issue with Victorious is not just its being unoriginal. At least Collide and Comatose sounded like the band was really passionate about the Linkin Park imitations they were making, but Victorious sounds so phoned in and corporately directed that I can't believe a word this band is saying about the same nonspecific rising up and fighting they've been singing about for the past decade.

I suppose I should get into the ugly details a bit. Thankfully I think this will be brief and relatively easy since the album is such a homogenously bland, lifeless trash fire. The tedious choruses and unenthusiastic arena rock aesthetic over the soulless production that I brought up earlier are pretty universal across the album. So I'll try to keep it quick and just highlight the most egregious examples. The "woah" melody on the first track, "Legendary", is so annoying I can't believe it made it out of the studio, the same of which can be said of the thin, verses on "You Ain't Ready", but honestly, these "woah ohs" are the least irritating of those on the album. I can see the electronic rock pump-up that the band were going for that people think of when they think of pop rock in a positive light on "Finish Line", but there really isn't enough muscle in the song to pull it off. The woop-woop vocals on the minimally instrumental, yet still over-produced "This Is the Kingdom" make it sound exactly like an Imagine Dragons song that even that band wouldn't want. The song "Rise Up" so lyrically generic and phoned in and so instrumentally thin that it's insulting the band actually consider this effort enough to incite any kind of rising up. The pop rock lighter-waving of the title track is so nauseatingly top 40 with its artificial string backing, Jen Ledger's bland melody even before the post-chorus "woah"s, but those indeed bring it home. The completely inattentive and forgettable balladry of "Terrify the Dark" is obviously an attempt at making a Hillsong-type ballad meant to be the musical backing to inspirational church video montages. It's just a transparent foray into trying to get a contemporary worship music hit in the worst way, and to call it half-assed would be generous. Even worse perhaps is the saccharine "Jesus is by girlfriend"-type pop rock ballad of the faux-orchestral piano number "Anchor". Okay, so that wasn't as brief as I was hoping, but it's over now.

I know I mentioned Collide being a part of my early musical life, but my distaste for this album is honestly independent of my nostalgia for the band's earlier work. Yes, it's disappointing seeing a band whose music I have fond memories of just tank while trying to do something that seems rather contrived that clearly isn't working for them. I was kind of already expecting some stale radio alternative metal and alternative rock going in, but this album really defied those expectations in the worst ways and I know that I would feel just as negatively about it if it were hypothetically released by some other band or if I didn't know Skillet prior. I know my disappointment is probably influencing the degree to which I am frustrated with this album, but I know that my negative reaction is not just because I expected wanted a rehash of Collide or Comatose (I didn't) and got something different. Really, I'd already heard the essence of this very unoriginal album before I even heard the album itself; I mentioned Imagine Dragons earlier. The contrast with the band's better earlier work just makes this hot pile of garbage all the more tragic to hear.

I keep a roughly ordered list of all the album's I've heard throughout the year, and earlier last week before this album came out, I was thinking about how great the output has been over the past few months and how I hadn't heard a truly atrocious album in a good few months, which sparked my curiosity to look at the bottom ten of my list at the moment. And I know the year's not over yet, but when I saw the album I had tenth from the bottom, I felt bad because even though I don't like it, it didn't feel like it deserved a "ten worst albums" spot. I suppose the silver lining of Victorious is its nudging that number ten album out of the bottom ten. But the other ugly aspect of Victorious' awfulness is that im going to have to listen to Mark Morton's Anesthetic to determine which one is worse.

Don't listen to this inauthentic, radio ploy cash grab/10

#Skillet #Victorious #alternative rock #alternative metal #metal #heavy metal #new music #new album #album review

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