Skillet -- Skillet

6/10

"I don't like this guy's scratchy voice. Let's listen to that Bleach album you got instead."
Thus ended my partial first listen of Skillet's self-titled debut album in 1996. I don't think I listened to it again for 15 years. I did get into the band immediately after their second album, and I'll get to that (I'm gonna review every single one of them), but for the longest time, I had no interest in revisiting this one.
Skillet is a band of many different eras, and they've restlessly changed sounds with just about every album they've released. Their self-titled debut is their most bare-bones work, but in retrospect, it shows some songwriting skill that predicts the band's great success a decade later.
Skillet is the only album of their's I'd consider grungy. It's one of only two albums the band recorded as a three piece, and though many of the songs are just straightforward, grunge-influenced 90's rock music, there are certain touches, like the meditative piano and gentle guitar bridge of otherwise raucous opener, "I Can," which betray a deeper level of sophistication. Admittedly, frontman, John Cooper, is still finding his voice as a singer here. He's often stated that he didn't think he could even do it, until he heard Kurt Cobain for the first time, and realized that band vocals didn't have to be perfectly refined. Still, once your ears get used to them, Cooper's vocals sound fine here, even when they're thinly stretched on the album's ballads, "Saturn" and "Safe With You." However...
The album as a rule, is pretty rote and straightforward. At about the 20-minute mark, I always find myself looking at my watch. This ain't a bad debut by any measure, but Skillet has a lot more interesting and dynamic material ahead. On the debut, it's when they shake up the formula, like on the previously-mentioned, spacey, but driving "Safe With You," that they truly hint at what they are capable of. Personally, in a dark moment, that song provided religion when I needed it. That kind of feeling, which pokes its head at select moments here, would become the band's calling card.


1996 Ardent/ForeFront
1. I Can 4:18
2. Gasoline 4:02
3. Saturn 5:10
4. My Beautiful Robe 3:39
5. Promise Blender 3:56
6. Paint 3:21
7. Safe with You 3:49
8. You Thought 3:41
9. Boundaries 4:06
10. Splinter 2:41