Skillet -- Collide

9/10

***NOTE: This is a review of the original Ardent release of Collide, not the Lava re-issue that has the re-ordered tracklist, and "Open Wounds,"... in The Nicsperiment's opinion, the tighter, more concise and cohesive original Ardent version is the way to go***

I forgot all about Skillet. It didn't take long. Just a couple of years without an album, as I experienced a lot of other music I liked, and enough life drama to send Dr. Phil packing. I didn't realize, though, that in the spring of 2004, as I battled mental illness, a nine month-long migraine, and some rather sinister exterior forces, that what I really needed was some Skillet. Skillet delivered.
Somehow sensing that what I needed from them was an extremely heavy effort, laden with angst, Skillet had released Collide just months before in late 2003. That spring, my co-host at KLSU recommended I give it a listen. She generally hated Skillet, so that certainly got my attention, and also we're married now. After 10 seconds of my first Collide listen, I thought, wait is this Godsmack? This album slams! 
For Collide, vocalist, John Cooper, has added layers of grit to his vocals, his wife, Korey, has jumped from keys to guitar (though there are still some keys at just the right moments), new guitarist, Ben Kasica, can shred, and new drummer, Lori Peters, seems to really want to take some anger out on her cymbals.
Perhaps Cooper caught a look at his goofy hairstyle in the mirror and decided he wanted to be relevant. Maybe all the Linkin Park and P.O.D. he'd been listening to got into his system. Or maybe he just noticed how positively crowds were reacting to the heavier songs of Skillet's previous album, Alien Youth, at live shows. Whatever the case, Cooper was inspired to go to the producer of the band's self-titled debut, Paul Ebersold, and crank out the heaviest tunes possible, while still maintaining the Skillet sound.
Collide rips, heavy riff after heavy riff, Cooper screaming some of the lyrics for the first time in his career, and sounding great doing so. Channeling the difficult relationship he had with his father, he is able to hit on many layers of marginalization, depression, anger, guilt, and pain, with the most real and affecting lyrics of his career. I could easily identify with his darker words and music, with Skillet inexplicably popping back up on my radar in a huge way. My now wife and I bonded over the album,  and we even enjoyed the album's high-energy ballad, "Under My Skin." We played it on the air seemingly every week.
Truthfully, the album has a couple secret weapons that other hard rock acts don't seem to know about or grasp, namely space and how to use violin and cello. Just check out the roomy nature of the quite heavy "Savior," how the music lulls and builds to the booming chorus, or how the album's first ballad, "A Little More," offers a reassuring respite from the rest of the album's aural onslaught. Even better is how the strings in the title track come in at the intro to build an epic feeling, then come back in the bridge, banging against the band's instrumental (it's almost like there's a word for two things hitting into each other, but I just can't think of it right now). Collide is a high-water mark in Christian rock, and mid-00's hard rock in general, a huge musical moment.
The only real misstep is track nine, "Energy," a classic, cheesy Cooper "God, you're so cool number." I say this not to mock Cooper's faith, which I share. The subtle hand of God holds Cooper together through the angst of the album's other tracks. "Under My Skin," the Collide's eighth track, has already brushed the curtain and let the light in. "Energy" just doesn't fit with the rest of the album. It should go straight from "Under My Skin," to closer, "Cycle Down," which works as an affirmation of faith, while not discarding the rest of the album's grit. When I listened to it back then, I always skipped "Energy." It caught me off guard on my listens for this review, as well. Cooper should have just made "Energy"a b-side. Still, this small misstep can't rob Collide of its raw power. It's a standout album, and took a band who seemed to be headed to youth group afterthought territory to multi-platinum-selling ubiquity.


2003 Ardent
1. Forsaken 4:12
2. Savior 4:33
3. Collide 5:38
4. A Little More 4:49
5. My Obsession 5:00
6. Fingernails 5:07
7. Imperfection 4:07
8. Under My Skin 4:06
9. Energy 3:57
10. Cycle Down 3:58