Skillet's 'Rise' above rock boundaries

Skillet, Rise
Rock
* * * (out of four)

Along with Mumford & Sons and the Black Keys, Skillet was one of just three rock acts to get a platinum album in 2012. They achieved this by finding the common ground between disaffected hard-rock fans and their Christian-rock counterparts. On its eighth album, the band pushes its musical limits with a coming-of-age tale that begins in a world that appears irreparably broken.

While some tracks would fit on active-rock radio right alongside Trapt or Stone Sour, Not Gonna Die and Fire and Fury boast male-female vocals more along the lines of Paramore. American Noise features the album's best lyrics, thanks in part to co-writer Tom Douglas, who also co-wrote Miranda Lambert's The House That Built Me.

The album's story ultimately works its way from a place of desperation to one of hope with a final statement of faith: "Believe in your love, believe in your faith, believe you can put me back together on the inside."

Download: Sick of It, American Noise