DISCIPLE

BIOGRAPHY

In their acclaimed career, Disciple has recorded 13 studio albums, earned 16 No. 1 singles, and sold hundreds of thousands of records. Their music has been featured on ESPN’s NFL Live, WWE, Fox Sports, as well as in commercials for CBS’ CSI: Miami and Criminal Minds. They’ve received multiple Dove Awards and played thousands of shows worldwide, including a 2023 stint in 40 arenas on Winter Jam Tour. Currently, Disciple is playing both rock sets and leading worship through their other musical project Honor & Glory.

Disciple’s Skeleton Psalms is the story of humanity told in three parts: brokenness, mercy and victory.

That trilogy of acts was led by the album’s first three tracks to release. “The Executioner,” “Promise to Live” and “Bad Words” mapped out the journey from grim self-awareness through resurrecting grace and into a declaration of the resulting exultant faith in Jesus. The rest of the album bears up that narrative.

“What a beautiful accident this album was. Every single song is intertwined and connected with each other,” lead singer and band founder Kevin Young reflects. “They all deal with similar themes, they all have an element of being autobiographical. It’s almost like chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3: human depravity, the unconditional love of God, then victory.”

Young continues, “The songs of victory are really interesting. I don’t know that those are songs we write all the time: living in victory, freedom, peace and forgiveness. We’re always talking about the struggle. And we do struggle on this album. But then you get to a place where you’re talking about ultimate victory.”

The album’s title is born from that over-arching narrative, a reference to the sacred death to self that births new life.

Skeleton Psalms was created in house: produced by guitarist Josiah Prince at his studio The Ranch, written by Kevin Young, Andrew Stanton (guitar) and Josiah Prince, with drums from Joey West and additional backing vocal support from touring bassist Marco Pera. For additional support on instrumentation, Mark "Traa" Daniels (P.O.D.) played bass. The band called on mix engineer Nick Rad (Skillet), mastering engineer Sam Moses (Tenth Avenue North) and the drum recording skills of Lester Estelle (Pillar, Kelly Clarkson) to round out the creative team.

In addition to the three songs that preceded the album, Skeleton Psalms boasts the hauntingly visceral title track “Skeleton Psalm,” the poignant celebration “Resurrecting Reasons,” the savagely ripping “20 20 Blind” and the irresistible compassion of “For the Life of Me.” Sonically, the album paints from a palette colored with every one of the releases in the band’s acclaimed 30-year career. At the same time, the soundscape that ultimately takes shape is wholly the product of the current lineup’s 10 years as a creative unit.

“It’s just the chemistry of the four of us having played so many shows together,” guitarist and producer Josiah Prince reflects. “We have so much instinct now for what the four of us would do on a song when we're performing it. So when we’re writing the songs, it is informed by that. To me, this album feels the most like the energy that we put out on stage.”

Their internal cohesion allowed each band member to shine in their own right as they complemented each other.

Joey West offers, “I was like, ‘the songs really need a next-level drum part to accompany this. On this album more than ever, I feel like I actually had the musician mind versus a drummer mind. I was like, I really want to complement what's going on, ramp everything up and bring the intensity to it.”

That level of musical intensity married beautifully with the album’s weighty but ultimately victorious themes.

“We put out ‘The Executioner’ first. And it's sort of the end of the story: all the pain and struggle. But it's also the beginning of a new story, a new theme and a new destination,” guitarist Andrew Stanton reflects. “The album plays, it will get to the end and start over and make sense in a loop.”

Skeleton Psalms is available now, wherever you stream music.