23x-platinum rock band SKILLET have announced their explosive new single, “Scream,” arriving July 10, alongside the launch of their upcoming “Comatose: 20 Years, Still Screaming Tour,” a major fall headline run produced by Live Nation.
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” HERE.
The announcement follows a monumental start to the year for SKILLET. Their 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.” Clean electric guitar slips into the undertow of crushing distortion as 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.”