Conquer: A Tribute to Skillet by Caleb Hyles

Why do I enjoy cover artists? There are so many reasons, one of them I love to see different interpretations of songs that I know but also on a more deeper meaning it let me discover new musicians and vocalists over a period of time and see how they develop, my finding over the years with Caleb Hyles has been one of the most interesting cases because 11 years ago I wouldn’t imagine in my life that was it was a silly channel between two brothers eventually it would evolve into one of the most popular content creators.

Conquer a Tribute to Skillet is a really cool product, a different reinterpretation of some of the songs but at the same time it does keep the essence, is a cool album because if you are a listener that is looking for new vocalist and musicians you can have a six degrees of separation and find new talents such as Aruvn, Lollia, Jonathan Young (who is already well established) and SixteeninMono who form part of the line-up.

A fantastic thing about the album is that even if you as a listener are not in to Christian Rock, you can still enjoy it, it goes on the same vein as Evanescence that has an appeal to the masses on a pop culture level because of the hard beats sounds but lyrics that can reach a general public; now that I mentioned that I didn’t had a clue who Skillet were until about six years ago, when people at work used to describe me who was Skillet I thought they were talking about a brand of cooking appliances until by random effects of the destiny they are a band.

The production of the album is quite fantastic, gorgeous and energetic and melancholic, it’s almost as a spiritual journey through life and pain, to find there is room to growth and find comfort in the hands of the Lord. There is always something I noticed within years of following different indie artists through the years, each one of them has their own unique sound, not only on their voices on instruments, is almost as a trademark where you can identify the artist by the selection of background instrumentalization but also due vocal techniques.

Let’s just focus on this album, the album has a reflection of Caleb’s sounds on instrumentalization, sounds that reflect his concerts that are filled with high energy routines but also melodic and more mellow themes, concerts that can make you unite with the other public and join the Hyles Hype Crew; but is not only the high energy of the instrument, the different collaborations there are in the album with Jonathan Young that add an incredible dose of Metal and brotherly bond, it’s not only a one or two songs they are two acts that have such an amazing chemistry together that even with their own personal accomplishments they create synergy to bring two fandoms into one.

There are so many little things on the album that reflect Caleb personal journey into the world of entertainment but also his grown as an artist, you have to understand this is a journey and an evolution of more than 10 years, from the Rock Band days, to the silly videos he and his brother Josh created on their parents living room along with other friends, to the first anime covers such as Vampire Knight, to the fan dubs of different anime’s with several of their friends to eventually becoming his own channel with CalebCovers, From the Dark to As Eyes Go Blind  and eventually the Peace, Love and Metal Community.

Is a process, that has turned him in to a brand of his own and I do not believe this is the culmination but rather a beginning of one of the superstars of the world of music, if you want to purchase the album hit here and it will redirect you to his iTunes store page that will redirect you to the Conquer: A Skillet Tribute Album.