Two-time GRAMMY®-nominated rockband SKILLEThave announced a June 25 release for their highly anticipatednew album RISE. The album's lead singles "Sick Of It"(Mainstream Active Rock/Christian rock) and "American Noise" (ChristianCHR) will go to radio on April 8 and 9, while "Sick of It" and "AmericanNoise" will be available at iTunes® on April 9 and 16 respectively.

RISE follows the band's 2009 blockbuster, Awake, which was recently certifiedplatinum for sales in excess of one million copies in the U.S. It's worth noting thatSkillet 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 andthe Black Keys) to strike platinum in 2012.

The band maintains momentum with RISE, a gripping coming-of-age narrativethat stands as their first concept album-though lead singer/bassist John Coopersays it wasn't premeditated. The album tells the story of a typical American teencoming into adulthood and trying to figure out who he is in a world riddled withproblems both within and outside his control.

"The narrative idea happened after we had 10 or 11 of the songs chosen," he says."As we recorded them, we started to realize that there was something going on-that the album was really telling a story. Realizing that, I knew we needed tomake it as powerful as we could, and say that even though all of those things arehappening, there is hope and there is love and there is a God that will be there foryou; if you reach out to Him, He will reach back out to you. That message is in allof our records and most of our songs. It certainly is the message of this record."

The result is a wildly ambitious work as heady as it is visceral. Sonically, the discsees the band expanding their musical palette, integrating natural, acousticinstruments like accordion, mandolin, dulcimer, harp, tympani and bells to theirtrademark slashing electric guitars, strings, churning synths and pummelingdrums.

Skillet (Cooper, guitarist/keyboardist Korey Cooper, drummer/vocalist JenLedger and guitarist Seth Morrison) recorded the album in Los Angeles, wherethey re-teamed with producer Howard Benson (Three Days Grace, All AmericanRejects, My Chemical Romance), who helmed Awake.

Awake debuted at No. 2 on Billboard's Top 200 Album Chart and No. 1 on themagazine's Top Modern Rock/Alternative Albums Chart. In addition, the recordhit No. 1 on the iTunes® Top Album Chart, garnered 3 Billboard Music Awardsand spawned four hit singles including the No. 1 Active Rock smash and goldcertified"Awake & Alive," the gold-certified "Hero," "It's Not Me It's You" and theplatinum-certified "Monster." "Monster" lived up to its name, selling more than amillion copies and hitting Top 5 at Active Rock radio (the first in a string ofmultiple Top 5 active rock hits), while its companion video has generated over 47million YouTube views. The hook-happy "Hero" was featured in season-longspots for NBC's NFL Sunday Night Football and served as the official theme songfor 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 onPollstar'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, Skillet has sold more than two million unitsin the U.S. alone, racked up more than 150 million YouTube views and amassed adiehard following (dubbed Panheads) whose members number in themillions, including over 3.8 million on Facebook alone.

In related news, John Cooper has partnered with Zachary Kelm's Q ManagementGroup and music business attorney Todd Rubenstein to form Hear It Loud, animprint the three began to develop and recruit new talent. The imprint's firstsigning, WE AS HUMAN, is the first band on the roster and will release