Skillet’s 30th anniversary is arriving with a new EP, a 20th-anniversary tour for COMATOSE and a surprisingly honest conversation about church hurt in CCM Magazine’s September cover story.
“I think that gives a little bit of credibility to so many people we have seen completely deconstruct and leave the faith and say it’s the church’s fault,” Skillet frontman John Cooper said during the accompanying interview.
Cooper was talking about people who lose trust after seeing Christian leaders fail, abuse authority or refuse accountability. He did not dismiss the damage, but he also did not present deconstruction as the end of the story. Instead, he said he hopes those people return to the faith while acknowledging that their suffering can be real.
That tension sits at the center of AFTER THE STORM, Skillet’s six-song EP due Oct. 9. According to the project’s official press announcement, the music grew out of seasons of betrayal, grief, perseverance and hope. The band’s own preorder page confirms the release date and lists the EP’s physical editions and fan packs.
“I think that rock music should be vulnerable. That’s how I like it anyway,” Cooper said in the video. He explained that the goal is not to pretend every day feels like a victory parade but to write honestly enough that listeners can hear their own pain, victories and questions in the songs.
Related: SKILLET Frontman Opens Up About Pain Behind New Song ‘SCREAM’
That approach also shapes “SCREAM,” the first single from the project. Cooper described the song as a response to the noise of social media, the cruelty people direct at one another and the feeling that life has lost its anchor. The song’s answer is not despair for its own sake; it is a cry to God and a refusal to give up.
“Being a Christian is so much more important to me than being a rock star. I play music to express my love for God,” Cooper said in the interview. That conviction has remained part of Skillet’s identity even as the band has reached listeners far beyond the Christian music world.
The interview brings the full quartet together: Cooper; guitarist and keyboardist Korey Cooper; drummer and vocalist Jen Ledger; and guitarist Seth Morrison. The band is looking back at COMATOSE, the 2006 album that helped define its breakthrough years, while continuing to write for fans who may be hearing Skillet for the first time.
CCM’s profile notes that children who were not alive when COMATOSE arrived now sing those songs alongside their parents and grandparents. That longevity gives the new EP a different weight: its audience includes listeners who have grown up with Skillet’s candid language for struggle.
The official Skillet tour page lists the fall run, while Live Nation identifies the anniversary tour as Comatose 20 Years, Still Screaming. The tour begins Sept. 30 in Schenectady, New York.
For Skillet, the new chapter is not a victory lap that hides the bruises. It is a louder, heavier reminder that Christian hope does not require pretending pain is absent. Sometimes faithfulness looks like telling the truth about the storm — and still reaching for God after it.
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