Creed



Creed was an extremely popular Post-Grunge band that sold a lot of music in the late '90s to early 2000s. Chances are, if you were between 12 and 20 during this time, you owned one of their albums. They formed in Florida around '95 and released their first album, My Own Prison, in '97. Two years later, they dropped Human Clay and you couldn't turn on a radio in America without hearing "Higher".

Over the next few years, Scott Stapp let fame go to his head and got loopier and loopier in terms of antics. They split not long after "Weathered," their last album for 8 years.

3/4ths of the band would go on to form Alter Bridge, a much better accepted rock act. Stapp did a solo album and got in trouble with the cops before dropping off of the face of the earth for a while.

They reunited in 2009 and, surprisingly enough, still sounded pretty good. They did a short tour followed by a brand, spankin' new album that some music critics said heralded the end times.

Albums:
 * My Own Prison (1997)
 * Human Clay (1999)
 * Weathered (2001)
 * Full Circle (2009)

Tropes:

 * Album Title Drop: The song "Say I" contains a reference to human clay, its album's title.
 * Call Back: "Freedom Fighter" has some spoken dialogue buried within the first verse, which quotes a lyric from "Wash Away Those Years".
 * Christian Rock/Not Christian Rock: It's arguable which one they are, at least in some circles. If they are the former, then they're definitely the most successful Christian rock band ever. They never followed the pattern "Christian Rock": not on a Christian Music label, little mention on CCM radio, etc. Even their website mentioned that they were pretty open to whichever God was the real one. Plus there's all of the "Getting drunk, sloshing through concerts, and fighting with other bands" thing that kind of kills the debate.
 * Most of the Christian influence seems to have been Scott Stapp's doing; when the rest of the band formed Alter Bridge after Stapp left, the religious messages in the music were greatly downplayed.
 * Whatever the case, you still gotta hand it to them. Getting music with a religious message on top 40 radio is rarely an easy task. It'd take some kinda tactical genius...
 * Epic Rocking: "Who's Got my Back?", clocking in at 8:25.
 * Fading Into the Next Song: "Wrong Way" into "Faceless Man" on Human Clay; "One Last Breath" into "My Sacrifice" on Weathered.
 * Follow the Leader: Critics often accuse them of ripping off Pearl Jam, especially Eddie Vedder's style of singing.
 * I Was Having Such a Nice Dream: "Higher" describes a lucid dream about heaven. The sunrise rather rudely interrupts it.
 * Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness: Most of their songs are around a 4, sometimes a 5. A few of their songs go a little heavier, with songs like 'Fear', 'Overcome', 'What If', and a few more going up to a 6 or 7. 'Bullets' is around 7.
 * No Indoor Voice: Scott Stapp has a habit of bellowing rather loudly on even some of the softer songs. It's mostly Nose Yodeling but it occasionally approaches Careful with That Axe levels of angst.
 * Post-Grunge
 * Power Ballad: Some of their biggest hits were these, including "Higher" and "With Arms Wide Open".
 * Seven Minute Lull: "Signs" has a conspicuous break in the music right after Scott snarls, "This is not about sex!"
 * Surprisingly Gentle Song: Human Clay had this in the form of "With Arms Wide Open" (which became one of Creed's biggest hits) and also "Wash Away Those Years". Weathered then experienced a bit of whiplash between some of the band's heaviest songs and more mellow fare like "Don't Stop Dancing" and "Lullaby".
 * Take That, Critics!: "Bullets", "Overcome", and possibly "What If" and "Signs".
 * Uncommon Time: The verses of "Wrong Way".