With the task of following up their previous hit album, “Comatose”, Skillet has definitely made this new album a challenge for themselves. Can they really do it? - this is a question that a lot of people have been asking about the new album, and this question was finally answered when “Awake” dropped in the fall of 2009.

So, how does the new record stand up to previous projects that Skillet has put out? Well, lets just say that, in a lot of ways, Skillet has hit the nail on the head again.

In this album, it seems that Skillet has taken their music even farther down the road started on in Comatose. They have included more strings, heavy guitar riffs, and more background vocals (many of them performed by the new drummer, Jen Ledger… this is her debut recording with the group). Technically, and from a production point of view, Skillet could not have gotten it any better. The album is tight, technically sound, and produced to the maximum. If there is one thing that Skillet has gotten proficient at in their musical careers, it is releasing technically perfect records (quite a feat for a rock band such as Skillet to accomplish…).

Now, about the written material. In a lot of ways, this album was a first for Skillet in terms of new material as well. The two singles “Monster” and “Hero” showed us a small glimpse of what was to come, and we loved it. The rest of the album follows suit for the most part - though, it does perhaps lack some of the “finer” moments that we saw on Comatose. While all of the songs are catchy and driven, some of them just lack the intensity that we saw on songs like “The Last Night” from Comatose. Does this make the album any less than epic? Absolutely not. Skillet has dared to take us in an entire new direction with this album, and you can expect something different with Awake. It is alive - it is loud, it is in your face, but you will also find that it will identify with you -  and that is what Skillet is perhaps the best at.