SKILLET DEBUTS NO. 1 ON BILLBOARD TOP ROCK CHART AND ENTERS BILLBOARD TOP 200 AT NO. 4
 
New album RISE also hits No. 1 on iTunes Rock Charts
 
Band performing on CONAN July 11
 
Fall tours include Carnival of Madness, European Tour with Nickelback

 
Nashville, Tenn. (July 3, 2013) – Two-time GRAMMY®-nominated rock band Skillet have debuted No. 1 on Billboard's Top Rock Album Chart and No. 4 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart along with landing No. 1 on the iTunes® Rock Album Chart with their critically acclaimed new album RISE (Atlantic/Word).
 
The album’s explosive start was fueled by the success of a four-song rollout at iTunes® which saw the first two tracks, “Sick Of It” and “American Noise,” both hit No. 1 on the iTunes® Rock Songs Chart (at one point, No. 1 and 2 on the chart), while the third and fourth-released songs, “Rise” and “Not Gonna Die,” each shot to No. 2. The band has also been building momentum with radio promotion, a social media blitz and explosive summer festival performances. The past two weeks Skillet hosted their first ever VIP fan events titled "Road to Rise" in Nashville and Chicago. The Chicago Sun-Times heralded the event stating that it "redefines the VIP experience." In the digital world, the platinum-selling band did an exclusive album stream and podcast premiere with Billboard, video premieres with Revolver and Guitar World and a song premiere with USA Today, to name a few. The high media profiles lead up to the band's late night debut on CONAN on July 11.
 
“Skillet has become increasingly deft at straddling the tricky line between faith-based idealism and secular universality,” wrote Billboard. “RISE takes the balance a step further, mixing new sonic flavors into the group’s hard-rock bombast.” USA Today gave the album 3 out of 4 stars, People praised the band for “taking their hard rock to higher ground,” and About.com called RISE “THE album of 2013.”
 
Following recent performances at several major festivals, including Creation, Rock on the Range, Alive and Rocklahoma, Skillet (vocalist/bassist John Cooper, guitarist/keyboardist Korey Cooper, drummer/vocalist Jen Ledger and guitarist Seth Morrison) are gearing up to hit the road with Shinedown on the upcoming Carnival of Madness tour. Kicking off August 13th at the Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica in Cleveland, the tour will also feature Papa Roach, In This Moment and We As Human. They’ll follow by heading overseas for their first-ever tour with Nickelback, a month-long jaunt that will see Skillet playing Milan, Paris, Vienna, London, and many more.
 
 
About Skillet:
RISE follows the band's 2009 blockbuster, Awake, which was recently certified platinum for sales in excess of one million copies in the U.S. It’s worth noting that Skillet was the only active rock band to achieve platinum certification in 2012, and were one of only three rock bands (the other two being Mumford & Sons and The Black Keys) to strike platinum in 2012.
 
Awake debuted at No. 2 on Billboard's Top 200 Album Chart and No. 1 on the magazine's Top Modern Rock/Alternative Albums Chart. In addition, the record hit No. 1 on the iTunes® Top Albums Chart, garnered three Billboard Music Awards and spawned four hit singles including the No. 1 Active Rock smash and gold-certified “Awake & Alive,” the gold-certified "Hero," "It's Not Me It's You" and the platinum-certified "Monster." "Monster" lived up to its name, selling more than a million copies and hitting Top 5 at Active Rock radio (the first in a string of multiple Top 5 active rock hits), while its companion video has generated over 47 million YouTube views. The hook-happy "Hero" was featured in season-long spots for NBC's NFL Sunday Night Football and served as the official theme song for WWE's Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View. The band toured endlessly in support, playing to sold-out crowds across the country, which earned them a spot on Pollstar's Concert Pulse Chart of the Top 50 Tours for fall of 2010. Awake followed the band’s 2006's gold-selling album, Comatose.
 
Over the course of the past few years have sold more than two million units in the U.S. alone, racked up more than 150 million YouTube views and amassed a diehard following (dubbed Panheads) whose members number in the millions, including over 4 million on Facebook alone.
 
 
[Get Connected with Skillet]
Website// www.skillet.com
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