Creed releases album after five year hiatus

In the music world today, it’s not often that musicians get a second chance. Sure, Britney Spears got a free pass after shaving her head and going Don Quixote on a paparazzo’s car with her umbrella, but rock bands usually don’t have the same celebrity status to save them from sheer humiliation. That is why it came as a shock when the world found out that the late-90’s rock band Creed was getting back together.

In 1997, the Florida natives were a glorified garage band that managed to sell several million copies of their first album, “My Own Prison.”

Around the beginning of the new millennium, Creed was considered a commercial success when their second album, “Human Clay,” sold over 10 million copies. This, however, was the peak of their success.

By the time the band’s third album, “Weathered,” was released, it seemed like they were running out of steam. After an incident at a late 2002 concert where several concert-goers attempted to sue the band for performing drunk, Creed was circling the popularity drain. Eventually, they disbanded in 2004.

The band’s newest album, “Full Circle,” was released on Oct. 27th, roughly two weeks after the end of their comeback tour.

One of the first things that listeners will recognize with the new album is the group’s new sound. Back in their original run, Creed was a band that sounded a lot like early Pearl Jam (usually a little too much) with a grunge-rock feel.

The music on “Full Circle” sounds more like a mix between Breaking Benjamin and Theory of a Deadman, though. This change is mostly due to the guitar-play of Mark Tremonti.

After Creed broke up, Tremonti joined with drummer Scott Philips and bassist Brian Marshall to form a new band, Alter Bridge. Somewhere around this time, Tremonti learned to play music that actually sounded pretty good. His earlier work with Creed sounded like something that the bronze medal winners at a high school Battle of the Bands performed, but the new album features some pretty good riffs in tracks “Overcome,” “Good Fight” and “A Thousand Faces.”

Two of the album’s other highlights are tracks “Away in Silence” and “Time.” These are the band’s slower tracks, comparable to “With Arms Wide Open” on their “Human Clay” album. This time, however, singer Scott Stapp doesn’t make the entire room laugh at his voice.

Something that any Creed fan can attest to is that Stapp has always been the weak link. This is why the band has to rely on macho rock songs most of the time. Stapp has shaved off his long hair for the new album, and it appears that some of the bad vocal skills came off as well.

While the first half of the album sounds promising, the rest seems like a combination of everything the band has done wrong on its last three projects. One of these problems is that the band constantly feels the need to sound like hard rockers. This results in very unintelligent songwriting and lyrics in songs like “On My Sleeve.” This, combined with Stapp’s weak vocals, results in the album being barely anything more than bearable.

At the end of the day, fans will most likely enjoy the new approach while those who dislike the band will continue to ridicule. Creed still may not be an amazing group, but they are growing as artists, and that is something that any music lover can appreciate.