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The new track serves as the first taste of a new era of music from the band, with additional releases expected later this year. Fans can pre-save “Scream” now.
The announcement follows a monumental start to the year for Skillet. The 6x-platinum anthem “Monster” recently surpassed 4 billion global streams, earned a place in Spotify’s Billions Club, and solidified its status as one of the most-streamed rock songs of all time. The achievement is particularly historic as “Monster” remains the only song by a Christian artist to surpass 1 billion streams on Spotify. The milestone arrives on the heels of the band’s completely sold-out European headline tour, which moved more than 90,000 tickets across 23 cities, bringing Skillet in front of the largest international audiences of their career.
For the new music, the band returned to familiar ground.
“We went back to Memphis and worked with a producer who knew the band before we’d made our first record,” says frontman John Cooper. “Life has taken some great turns, but it’s also taken some painful turns. Now we’re here, and we still have more of a story to tell. The music kept getting heavier, and I said, ‘We’ve got to go all-in.'”
They certainly did with “Scream.” With clean electric guitar slips into the undertow of crushing distortion, Cooper delivers a catchy and cathartic chorus: “I wanna scream. I wanna break something beautiful.” Ominous keys ring out, the beat snaps, and he wonders, “Will I ever be enough?” before a palm-muted bridge unleashes one final burst of emotion punctuated by glitchy electronics.
“I don’t think I’m the only one who’s noticing the volatility of the world and how social media is a cesspool where people are constantly yelling at each other,” Cooper explains. “It’s not helping anyone’s mental health. In this landscape, it’s easy to feel like nothing matters. ‘Scream’ is about wanting your life to matter when the world feels chaotic and overwhelming.”
The release of “Scream” arrives alongside the announcement of the Comatose: 20 Years, Still Screaming Tour, celebrating two decades of the landmark album that helped define a generation of rock fans while showcasing the band’s next chapter.
“When we released our 2006 album, Comatose, we all had a feeling that we were making something special,” recalls Cooper. “What we didn’t know is that the album would change the trajectory of the band’s career. It defined our sound, our message, and propelled the band into a much bigger level of notoriety. But most importantly, it resonated with all kinds of people from all walks of life. At every show, someone tells me that this record helped them through the darkest times of their life. That is why we wanted to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Comatose by doing something we have never done–commemorating the album by dedicating a large portion of the show to these songs that are so meaningful to the band and so many others. Some of them we have played a thousand times. Others we have never played. We are excited to perform them alongside our catalog on this once in a lifetime tour.”
