Skillet frontman John Cooper is adamant that even with drums and amped up guitars, O Come O Come Emmanuel is still a Christian song.
At least the classic Christmas hymn was the last time he checked.
Critics of the band’s new metal version are claiming it’s “Satanic!”
This is despite the arrangement being Skillet’s most Gospel-centric song ever released.
Graciously fending off retro-80s “Hells Bells” naysayers, he reassured them that this was not Skillet co-opting Satanism.
“It’s an Advent song recalling God’s incarnation, and calling out in anticipation for the Second Advent of Christ.
“For a lot of us, O Come O Come Emmanuel is like praying: ‘Lord, come quickly again. The world is not going well. And we are we’re in a certain amount of suffering here.’
“We are eagerly expecting the coming, the return of the king, the return of the Saviour.’
“O Come O Come has three layers, and this is one of them, Cooper added.
“There is sombreness, there is sadness, but there’s also an eager expectation.”
The challenge for the band was how to express all three.
Their intention with their fresh rendition, Cooper said, was to reach deep.
Reaching deep is exactly what this song does.
Talking about loss and grief, he said, “There are absolute heartaches out there; we are eagerly waiting for all of the old to be made new.”
“So, there’s this thing that the world is not right.”
“There’s a certain amount of heartache, and you want to express that through something very aggressive.”
Implying a grasp of Psalm 130’s Sanctis Cry de Profundis (Out of the Depths), Cooper rightly said that this particular layer was something the Catholic and Orthodox Churches seem to understand better than Protestants.
Adding gravitas, which made all of this the more profound, Cooper said the guitar parts were being tracked the day Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
“Literally, when he was assassinated, the heavy part of this song was being recorded.”
Talking with his wife, Koory – who arranged the music – Cooper said he told the Skillet guitarist and producer, “they were never going to be able to disassociate the meaning of this song, and that kind of guttural feeling you have that things are not right.”
Doubling down on the details, the bass-playing frontman and self-described theology nerd, asserted that,
“The incarnation of Christ coming into the world is the most important thing that has ever happened in the history of mankind.”
“Jesus Christ, the son of God, enters into his own creation. He takes the form of a man; takes upon His nature the nature of man; He is the god man.”
Jesus “flips the created order on top of itself. He comes in, and he defeats death.”
“He defeats the devil. He defeats the demons. He defeats the power of sin!”
“That needed to be done in a very loud, triumphant, earthshaking way.”
Cooper said, by being loud with O Come O Come Emmanuel, the band was trying to convey that.
Saying he wasn’t surprised some people are expressing problems with it, Cooper admitted, “It is really loud.”
“But that’s what Skillet does,” he quipped.
“We’ve been doing loud for almost 30 years.”
“We always make loud music. I would have thought those people would have already hated Skillet enough not to say anything.”
Speaking directly to the haters and hecklers, Cooper offered a final word:
“Hey, I think you’re brothers in Christ. I know you’re upset. Wish you weren’t. Nothing I can do.”
The Gospel is a rich, very real, tangible, and hopeful proclamation that has relevance today, especially in the presence of immense suffering.
WATCH the full CBN interview here:
