Winter Jam 2018 tour stops at McKenzie Arena

John Cooper, frontman in Skillet, usually likes to listen to his band's albums, something many musicians try to avoid for reasons such as not liking the sound of their voice, they hear mistakes or missed opportunities to strengthen the songs.

But the singer/bassist had a hard time getting himself to listen to Skillet's previous album, 2013 release "Rise." Over time, he thinks he came to understand the problem.

"I think it was two-fold; probably the majority of that was that it was not fun to make and it probably brought up a lot of baggage," Cooper explains.

"Rise" became difficult basically because of outside interference Cooper said he encountered during the project. He was urged to do co-writes with established outside songwriters, pushed to re-record certain songs and overall just felt considerable stress making "Rise."

Against that backdrop, it makes sense that Cooper and the other members of Skillet – his wife, Korey (guitar/keyboards), Seth Morrison (guitar) and Jen Ledger (drums/vocals) – went into the group's 2016 album, "Unleashed," looking to have a markedly different experience. Skillet just wanted to have fun.

"Unleashed" was re-released in November in a deluxe version called "Unleashed Beyond." It features two unreleased bonus tracks and remixes of three songs.

Fans will get a sampling of "Unleashed" during Winter Jam, which stops at McKenzie Arena on Sunday, Feb. 25. Also in Skillet's set: blockbuster 2009 single "Monster," "Awake and Alive," "Sick of It" - and a few surprises.

Cooper said he ignored advice to dial down the hard rock element of the band's sound and suggestions about what songs didn't fit on the album and made the album he wanted. Cooper says that's why he called (the album) "Unleashed."

"It was kind of like I felt very liberated."

"When we were making 'Unleashed,' I just thought it needed to sound like a really modern, in-your-face, big record," he said. "The most modern-sounding records at the time have been pop albums, and even Skrillex and the dubstep movement. It's very in your face, very aggressive, and a lot of that is coming from synthesized sounds.

"So I said 'I want to try, I want to have a rock element that incorporates that kind of sonic assault that (you feel) when you hear Skrillex, but with the loud guitars as well.' So we tried to achieve that while still keeping our identity.

"We just feel very energized," Cooper said. "The crowd is enjoying the new music and so it's just been really fun to put new songs into the set, along with some surprises, some musical transitions that are not any recorded project we've done. They're soley for live."

Contact Alan Sculley at alanlastword@gmail.com.