CREED - Full Circle Album Review

Review of Creed's album Full Circle

Having disbanded in 2004, the quintet who make up Creed have reformed! Ok, it may hardly be the most notable reunion of recent times, particularly to the UK music scene where the band barely scraped the charts, but in their American homeland they have shifted a rather impressive 26 million units.

Fans of the post-grunge Florida outfit will be glad to know that little has changed musically, detractors of Scott Stapp and co may well wish to move on to the next review. Right from the outset of opener 'Overcome' come the big riffs and throat-punishing drawl, subtlety quite obviously not being in the vocabulary of the Creed gang. It's a decent opener though and there's more tracks to induce some headbanging in the shape of 'Bread Of Shame' and 'On My Sleeve'. The album actually has a stronger mid-section with the appearance of two softer numbers; 'Away In Silence' being a likely lighter-waving moment of live shows while 'Rain' has a radio-friendly melody and tone that lends itself to being an anthem. The acoustic nature of the duo doesn't stop Stapp throwing all his vocal chords at each syllable of every lyric, but it is forgivable on genuinely enjoyable songs. Still, the band just can't help but pull out the crunching chords again and come the arrival of 'Good Fight' there is most certainly the feeling of repetition. Ultimately it's a solid return that sees the band picking up where they left off, so the aforementioned sales record may well be going up a few notches.

Alex Lai