Early years (1996–2001) Skillet formed in 1996 with two members:
John Cooper, former vocalist for Tennessee progressive rock band Seraph, and
Ken Steorts, former guitarist for Urgent Cry. The two bands met through touring together, but they disbanded soon after, so John and Ken's pastor encouraged them to form their own band as a side project. They decided to name the experiment "Skillet". After, Trey McClurkin joined the band as a temporary drummer. Skillet was only together for a month when they received interest from major Christian record label
ForeFront Records. In 1996, they released their demo album
Right Upside Your Head. On October 29 of the same year, they released a self-titled debut
Skillet. It was well received, and the trio continued to write new material as they toured the United States. Cooper has said the band's name was meant to be humorous, as the other founding members had already been in other bands, each with a different sound and style. The pastor of Covenant Community Church in Memphis—where the band was formed as a worship band side project—gave them their name as he felt they were like "southern cooking, where you just toss a bunch of different things into a big ol'
skillet and see what it turns out like". Skillet recorded their follow-up album throughout 1997, titled
Hey You, I Love Your Soul, which was released in April 1998. Their second effort was a change in style from the band's first release. With this release, Skillet abandoned their grunge approach for a lighter industrial alternative rock and style. Cooper's wife Korey was enlisted soon after to play keyboards live in order to alleviate his performance duties. Shortly before the band began recording for their third album,
Invincible, Steorts left to be with his family and launch
Visible Music College, and Kevin Haaland joined the band as their new guitarist. Korey Cooper joined the band permanently and played keyboards for the recording of
Invincible. Because of this change, the musical style on
Invincible changed to a more electronic sound. Soon after the release of
Invincible in early 2000, Trey McClurkin parted ways with Skillet, and Lori Peters filled the drummer's position. The band released their first worship album and fourth album overall,
Ardent Worship, in late 2000. The band kept much of their sound from
Invincible on their next album
Alien Youth. Skillet's album
Comatose was released on October 3, 2006. It features the singles "
Rebirthing", "
Whispers in the Dark", "
Comatose", "
The Older I Get", "Those Nights", "
The Last Night" and "Better Than Drugs". The album debuted at No. 55 on the
Billboard 200 and No. 4 on the US
Top Christian Albums chart. In January 2008, Skillet announced that their drummer, Lori Peters, was retiring from the band, feeling that "it's time for her to come off of the road and start a new chapter in her life". Peters' last concert with Skillet was on December 31, 2007. However, during the 2007 Christmas season, she took the time to train Skillet's next drummer,
Jen Ledger. The Comatose album was certified Gold and Platinum in sales by the
RIAA on November 3, 2009, and May 20, 2016, respectively. Skillet's seventh album,
Awake, contains twelve songs and was released on August 25, 2009. It charted at No. 2 on the Billboard top 200 selling around 68,000 units in its first week. They also released a deluxe version with the extra songs "Dead Inside" and "Would It Matter", along with the original, radio edit of "Monster" that does not have the distorted growl as in the single and in the CD. A remix on "Monster" was featured on one of their popular podcasts. The song "Hero" was used in the publicizing of the first football game of the 2009 NFL season between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans, and the song "Monster" was used in the episode "Jason: The Pretty-Boy Bully" on MTV's
Bully Beatdown. "Monster" was the theme song for the
WWE event
WWE Hell in a Cell, while the song "Hero" was the theme song for WWE
Tribute to the Troops and
Royal Rumble 2010. Both songs were included on the official soundtrack for the
WWE video game WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010. "Monster" also became the theme song for the
AHL team the
Cleveland Monsters, being played in the player intros and after a Cleveland goal, and it serves as the opening theme of the
Fresno Monsters of Fresno, California. The song was aired at the beginning of several ACC football games on
Raycom Sports during the 2009 season. In the first week of April 2010, "Monster" was released for the Rock band music store in
Rock Band 2.
Awake also tied the record for highest-charting Christian album on the
Billboard 200 with
Underoath's 2006 release
Define the Great Line and
Casting Crowns's 2007 release
The Altar and the Door; all three albums debuted at No. 2. Skillet was nominated for six Dove Awards for the 41st Annual GMA Dove Awards.
Awake was certified gold July 2, 2010. Also in 2010, Ardent released
The Early Years, a collection of their songs from 1996 to 2001. On November 12, Skillet released an iTunes sessions EP consisting of songs from
Comatose and
Awake. "Monster" was certified gold a day later.
2011–2020 On February 14, 2011, Skillet officially announced that longtime lead guitarist Ben Kasica would be leaving the band. Kasica was with the band for 10 years, contributing to the albums
Alien Youth,
Collide,
Comatose, and
Awake as well as the live album
Comatose Comes Alive. He played what was planned to be his last concert with the band on March 20, but returned and continued touring until a new guitarist was trained. On April 16, Seth Morrison replaced Kasica as the lead guitarist, and now tours full-time with Skillet. Skillet announced the release of
Awake and Remixed EP in early March 2011. The remixes were mainly done by Korey Cooper and Ben Kasica. On March 2, 2011, Skillet unveiled the album artwork for the album. John Cooper says the idea was conceived when Korey Cooper and Ben Kasica remixed the song Monster for their popular podcast. The four-song EP was released on March 22.
Awake was nominated for and won the "Top Christian Album" Award at the Billboard Music Awards 2011, and the song "
Awake and Alive" was announced to be on the
Transformers: Dark of the Moon Soundtrack in May 2011. On June 21, 2011, Cooper posted to his Twitter account that the band rehearsed new music for the first time and that they are getting ready for a new album. At a question and answer session before a concert, John Cooper said that they would be recording a new record in January/February 2012. However, the band was then scheduled to headline the
Winter Jam Tour. They planned to enter the studio at the conclusion of the Winter Jam eastern tour, approximately in May, for a release in late 2012. In an interview with
CCM Magazine, John Cooper described the new album as "a roller coaster ride". He stated: "We have aggressive tracks, artsy and musical tracks, which is new territory for Skillet. A couple songs are classic American heartland anthems, and a couple songs are signature symphonic-classical rock Skillet. Guitars are dirty and edgier, with absolute shredding solos by Seth." One of the songs mentioned in the interview was titled "Salvation". In an interview on January 26, 2013, in Beaumont, Texas, John Cooper announced that the new album,
Rise, would be coming out in May 2013, but was later scheduled for a June 25, 2013, release. In an interview with NoiseCreep, John Cooper stated the first single and music video is scheduled to be released in late April. The first single from the album, "
Sick of It", released to US Rock radio on April 23, 2013. It was later confirmed that the first single, "
Sick of It", would be released on April 9, 2013. The album debuted at No.4 on the
Billboard 200 and No.1 on the Top Rock Chart and Christian Album charts selling 60,000 copies in US alone during the first week of the release. On July 12, 2016, Rise was certified Gold by the
RIAA. On June 21, 2013, the band released a deluxe version of the album. The band performed the title track of
Rise on the July 11, 2013, airing of
Conan. Skillet was nominated and won a Dove Award for Rock Song of the Year for their song "Sick of It".
Vital Signs, a compilation album released exclusively in Europe, was released October 13, 2014. On February 16, 2015, Skillet announced they were writing material for a new album with recording to begin in June with a potential release in the late half of 2015 or early 2016. On April 8, 2016, Skillet released a preview of a new song, later revealed to be called "Out of Hell", on their social media pages. On May 20, the album's title,
Unleashed, was announced and later was released on August 5 with
Atlantic Records. A lyric video, "Feel Invincible", was also made available. On May 26, the lyric video and digital single "Stars" was released, along with a preview for another song titled "Back From the Dead". On June 6, it was announced that "Feel Invincible" was the theme song for
TBS'
E-League, the live video game tournament. WWE announced on July 7 that it had chosen "Feel Invincible" as an official theme for
WWE Battleground. On July 8, the full version of "Back From the Dead" was made available for purchase online. On January 27, 2017, the band released a new recording of "Stars" with an acoustic style, which was included in the film,
The Shack. On November 17, 2017, they released a deluxe edition,
Unleashed Beyond, containing new material such as "Breaking Free", featuring
Lacey Sturm and remixes of "Feel Invincible" and "The Resistance". Skillet also released a five-track EP containing remixes of "Feel Invincible". This was available to anyone who pre-ordered
Unleashed Beyond from their website. On May 5, 2019,
Billboard ran an article about Skillet's upcoming album tenth studio album,
Victorious, where they mentioned that the band had sold over 12 million units worldwide. The band released "Legendary" on May 7 as the first single off
Victorious. On June 14 the band released two new singles: "Save Me" and "Anchor". On July 27, the band released another single: "You Ain't Ready". The album was released on August 2, 2019. On September 20, 2019, "Legendary" was debuted as a theme song of
WWE Raw.
2020–present Victorious: The Aftermath, the deluxe edition of the album, was released on September 11, 2020. This edition included all 12 original tracks from
Victorious (2019), plus 8 additional tracks: 2 new unreleased songs ("Dead Man Walking", "Sick and Empty"), 5 reimagined versions (e.g., "Save Me", "Terrify the Dark"), and alternate mixes ("Legendary - Destiny Remix"). In March 2021, John Cooper received backlash concerning comments he made on the 2021 Grammys, particularly the live performance of
Cardi B and
Megan Thee Stallion and their song "
WAP". He argued that this exemplified society "redefining good as evil". He cited historical dictators like Hitler who "claimed liberation while committing atrocities". Cooper later clarified that he "did not compare Cardi B to Hitler", emphasizing that his intent was to critique moral relativism in culture. The band also announced their eleventh studio album,
Dominion, which was released on January 14, 2022, and was Skillet's final album with Atlantic Records after a 20-year partnership. Produced by Kane Churko, Kevin Churko, and Seth Mosley, it blended hard rock with lyrical themes of resilience (e.g.,
Surviving the Game) and spiritual warfare (
White Horse). This was followed by the release of three other singles: "Standing in the Storm" on November 12, 2021, "Refuge" on December 10, 2021, and the title track, "Dominion", on January 7, 2022. The album debuted at #38 on the Billboard 200, #2 on US Christian Albums, and #4 on US Top Rock Albums. Internationally, it reached #18 in Switzerland and #36 in Germany. On December 9, 2022, Skillet released the fourth single from the album, "Psycho in My Head", and announced the deluxe edition of the album,
Dominion: Day of Destiny, which was released on February 17, 2023, and added 5 tracks, including "Finish Line" (featuring
Adam Gontier). On February 3, 2023, it was announced that "Psycho in My Head" was the theme song for WWE's
Elimination Chamber 2023. On August 9, 2024, Skillet released the lead single "Unpopular" and announced their twelfth album
Revolution. It was released independently on November 1, 2024, under Skillet's label Hear It Loud. The album debuted at #100 on the Billboard 200 and #14 on Top Rock Albums, marking their lowest-charting main album since 2003's
Collide. On November 14, 2025, Skillet released
their first Christmas single, a cover of the song "
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel". The song debuted leading five
Billboard charts, both in the United States and internationally, additionally hitting No. 3 on the
Digital Song Sales chart; alternatively, it was deemed by critics to be "demonic". In February 2026, the band was announced as part of the lineup for the
Louder Than Life music festival in
Louisville, scheduled to take place in September. == Musical style ==