Skillet are coming off the most successful album of their career and if they fail to meet the bar set by the last disc it won't be through a lack of trying. Singer John Cooper tells Noisecreep that the band began the process for their next album with an overabundance of tracks.

He revealed, "Before we started work on the last album, I brought in full demos of 36 songs. This time, we had 72 at the beginning. So there was a lot of cutting down we had to do. Also, I'm not sure we even expected 'Awake' to do as well as it did, but since it did perform so well, now there is this sort of pressure to do it again. But that's okay. I've enjoyed writing from my heart and from my faith and I think the new music is a really honest look at where Skillet is today."

Cooper confirmed that the group as a whole managed to cut the final number of tracks down to 15. He adds that there were eight tracks that everyone was in agreement on, with the other seven opening themselves up for debate. "That's where you have to trust each other and believe in each other and be willing to let go once in a while," says Cooper.

As for the sound, the vocalist says, "This is an album unlike anything we've really done before. We've all been listening to more edgier, indie, alternative bands and it's really affected my writing. The sound is more raw and it has a tougher energy than our previous records." He added that the band has added some new sounds to their palette, including a dulcimer and some harp to go along with their aggressive guitar sounds. Cooper concludes, "One really important thing is that this is an album that's meant to be played live, so once we hit the road you'll be hearing a lot of it."
