Death By Way of Rebirth

One of the most disappointing days of my life was when I found out that Creed, my favorite band (at the time), was breaking up. Three of the four members went off and started another band, Alter Bridge, which was a more mainstream version of Creed. My initial excitement upon being able to hear more music from some of my favorite musicians immediately melted away once I realized how typical and unoriginal Alter Bridge’s sound was. Every once in awhile I would give the band a cursory listen but I never was a serious fan.

Last year the impossible happened and Creed reunited, putting out a new album. I was beyond ecstatic at this news. The band that had the most impact on the development and direction of my musical life was back with more alternative rock goodness. It took me several months to procure the album but now that I have I am wondering if it would have been better to leave the past in the past. Creed is not Creed anymore. They are a Frankenstein amalgamation of every post-grunge cliché and chord progression ever committed to an audio format.

What made Creed so special to begin with was that they did not sound like any other band out there. Creed made their own style of music that transcended the restrictive confines of their genre. While other bands were literally raping our ears with horrendous rap metal or recycling grunge riffs that were new and exciting in the early ‘90s Creed was carving their own path through the musical wilderness, forcing us to tread off the beaten path into an exciting new world. Granted, not everyone was willing to go along for the ride and for those of you who resisted you do not know what you were missing. Now they are just another typical alternative metal band hammering away at tried and true riffs and power chords that have been done to death by numerous other bands in the eight years since Creed disbanded.

I feel at this point I should say that Full Circle (the new album’s title) is by no means a bad album. It is a very good album if taken on its own terms as an enjoyable, rollicking ride through the aural landscapes of the average post-grunge album. But that is where the inherent problem lies.

Creed is not supposed to be the band that churns out manufactured, average post-grunge albums.

I am not saying I want Creed to be stuck in the past or that they need to sound exactly like they did eight years ago. Refusing to evolve or trying to recapture past glories can result in some bad, bad musical and lyrical decisions (see Motley Crue’s latest, Saints of Los Angeles). But it is like Creed is not even the same band. Some of the songs (“On My Sleeve”, “Good Fight” are the two best examples) sound like Creed is unsuccessfully trying to copy their own signature sound and fuse it with their newfound fondness for mediocrity and conformity while others (“Fear”, “Full Circle”, “Away in Silence”) have no business being anywhere near a Creed record.

None of the songs on the album are bad songs (“Away in Silence” being a painfully obvious exception) for your average band. But here again we run into that same old problem: Creed is supposed to be better than your average band. And that is where the heart of the problem (and my dejection) lies.

Creed went from being superior to the crowd to becoming part of the crowd.