Creed (band)

Creed
Creed in 2002
General information
Genre (s)	Hard rock , alternative rock , post-grunge
founding	1995, 2009
resolution	2004
Website	www.creed.com
Current occupation
singing	Scott Stapp
Guitar , bass (studio)	Mark Tremonti
bass	Brian Marshall
Drums	Scott Phillips

Creed is an American rock band that was formed in 1995. Between 2004 and 2009 the band was disbanded. During this time, the band members, with the exception of the singer, founded the successor band Alter Bridge , which continues to exist. They are among the most commercially successful American bands of the 2000s.

history

In 1995 singer Scott Stapp, guitarist Mark Tremonti, bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips founded the band Creed in Tallahassee . In 1997 Creed published their first work My Own Prison under their own direction and broadcast it to various radio stations in Florida. Through the CD and live performances, the band aroused the interest of the record label Wind-Up Records , under which they brought a revised version of the album onto the market in 1998. According to the manager Jeff Hanson , fourteen labels had already turned down a record deal with Creed. a. because rock music was considered out of date and not promising. The musical mixture of heaviness and melody, melancholy and euphoria is strongly influenced by Mark Tremonti's distinctive guitar riffs and the voice of singer Scott Stapp with his often metaphorical lyrics. They were extremely successful, especially in the USA, but also found many critics. Above all, the band has been accused repeatedly musically very strong grunge bands like Pearl Jam or Soundgarden to resemble it that often are referred to as post-grunge band. Some critics also state that the band has too much pathos .

When the musicians released their second album Human Clay on September 7, 1999 , their first album was still selling well. Through these two albums Creed became known as a rock band in America and also enjoyed growing popularity in Europe, where they also appeared at the end of the year at the tragic " Air & Style Contest", after which five people died. Singles like Higher , What If (from the Scream 3 soundtrack) or especially With Arms Wide Open contributed to their great success. The second album has now achieved eleven platinum status ( diamond status ) in the USA, making it one of the 100 best-selling albums in American music history.

In 2000, Creed split from bassist Brian Marshall, the reasons for which were never entirely clear. Brett Hestla now became a live bass player, while guitarist Tremonti played the bass for studio recordings. Creed's third album Weathered , which was released in 2001, was, like its two predecessors, a great commercial success. The album stayed at number one on the American album charts for eight weeks, a record that Creed shared with the Beatles . During the accompanying tour in 2002, however, some concerts had to be canceled due to health problems on the part of the singer Scott Stapp. At one of the concerts in Chicago, Stapp also put on a chaotic show that got the band advertised by fans.

On June 4, 2004, the band announced their official dissolution after selling over 24 million albums. The main reason for this was probably internal conflicts during the Weathered tour. In addition, both singer Scott Stapp and guitarist Mark Tremonti had planned side projects. When the band nevertheless considered a fourth studio album, the project failed due to the creative collaboration.

Mark Tremonti, Scott Phillips and Brian Marshall formed a little later, together with singer and guitarist Myles Kennedy , formerly with "The Mayfield Four", the successor band Alter Bridge . The music of their first album One Day Remains seemed a bit heavier overall and was equipped with many guitar solos . A success comparable to that of Creed has so far not been achieved. Scott Stapp started a solo project and released his first album The Great Divide on the US market at the end of November 2005 , which was also released in Europe in April 2006.

In April 2009, a video appeared on the group's website announcing the return of the band, including their former bassist Brian Marshall, for the summer of 2009. An official press release can also be found there, in which the band announced a US tour and a new album called Full Circle , which was released in October 2009. The first single called Overcome was released in advance as a download single at the end of August. In the same year Creed's first concert recording was released on DVD, which, with 239 cameras used, represents the world record for most cameras in use at a music performance.

Style and influence

Creed's musical style is often referred to as post-grunge , although this term itself is not clearly defined. Despite various grunge elements, later titles by the band have a high proportion of alternative rock , metal or hard rock , as known from bands such as Led Zeppelin . First and foremost, the quieter Creed songs have been the commercially successful ones; however, there is an abundance of metal borrowings in Creed's music. So the Plattentests.de editor Armin Linder comments on the album Weathered : "As an opener they fire a massive 'Bullet', which in terms of hardness surpasses everything in the Creed context, and the following, no less powerful" Freedom fighter " Even Metallica's James Hetfield couldn't have roared nicer. ”The band also achieved fame with the song What If , which is part of the soundtrack for Scream 3 and also falls into the band's harder catalog.

The band's music is often described as "hymn-like" or "stadium-compatible". The lyrics, which deal in particular with spiritual topics, and the distinctive guitar parts by guitarist Mark Tremonti are also characteristic. Quieter rock ballads such as B. With Arms Wide Open is seen by some as groundbreaking for the younger developments of modern rock bands, as many stylistic devices are taken up again in their songs or even increasingly used. In addition, the musicians, together with other rock groups, gave the rock ballad a significant commercial boost overall, from which bands such as Nickelback benefited. The metal influences of Creed, together with the extremely powerful production by John Kurzweg , have been an important reason, especially in the USA, for the heavier styles of rock to get a higher media presence again. Later, however, the band found themselves increasingly exposed to the accusation of deliberately writing commercial music for a mass audience. Singer Scott Stapp summarized this in an interview: “Creed was going against the mainstream, but then we became the mainstream. But I'm at peace with the critics and all of that kind of stuff. "

References to Christianity

Due to a strictly Christian upbringing by his parents, Scott Stapp fled from home as a teenager. He then made up for experiences that his parents withheld from him through a ban. He found his personal idol in the singer Jim Morrison and came into contact with drugs. However, his religious upbringing continued to occupy him very much, which is reflected in various texts by Creed (for example "My Own Prison", "Faceless Man"). While older texts are characterized by strong feelings of guilt and doubt, newer texts have a more positive effect on matters of faith. Creed himself denied being a Christian band in interviews. Rather, they are a band that also deals with this topic, but in which the individual band members do not have a uniform belief. Singer Scott Stapp clearly professed Christianity after the dissolution of Creed, which is also clearly evident in the lyrics of his solo project and the lyrics after the reunification of Creed. In recent interviews he describes his career, which ultimately made him a staunch Christian. In the follow-up volume Alter Bridge, references to religious topics can also be identified in some cases, albeit to a much more limited extent.

Discography

→ Main article : Creed (band) / discography

Studio albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	CA
1997	My Own Prison Wind-Up Records	DE50 (9 weeks) DE	AT14 (12 weeks) AT	CH49 (1 week) CH	-	US22nd × 6 Six-fold platinum (112 weeks)US	CA13 × 3 Triple platinum (… Where.)CA	First published: Aug 26, 1997 Sales: + 6,345,000
1999	Human Clay Wind-Up Records	DE9 gold (32 weeks)DE	AT11 gold (39 weeks)AT	CH35 (15 weeks) CH	UK29 gold (4 weeks)UK	US1 Diamond + platinum (104 weeks)US	CA1 × 6 Six-fold platinum (41 weeks)CA	First published: September 28, 1999 Sales: +11,970,000
2001	Weathered Wind-Up Records	DE8th gold (22 weeks)DE	AT8 (22 weeks) AT	CH20 (22 weeks) CH	UK44 gold (17 weeks)UK	US1 × 6 Six-fold platinum (74 weeks)US	CA3 × 3 Triple platinum (12 weeks)CA	First published: November 20, 2001 Sales: + 6,570,000
2009	Full Circle Wind-Up Records	DE9 (6 weeks) DE	AT12 (5 weeks) AT	CH7 (4 weeks) CH	UK78 (1 week) UK	US2 (19 weeks) US	CA3 (1 week) CA	First published: October 27, 2009

Awards

• Grammy (2001): for With Arms Wide Open as "Best Rock Song"
• American Music Award : for Human Clay as "Favorite Album", for "Favorite Band, Duo or Group" and twice for "Favorite Alternative Artist"

swell

1. ↑ Jeff Hanson Interview. hitquarters.com
2. ↑ Creed . MTV
3. ↑ Review: Creed - Weathered . Plattentests.de
4. ↑ Review RockHard
5. ↑ Creed Frontman on Their Critics: 'Rock Magazines Have Been Wrong Before' . Noisecreep
6. ^ Stapp: I Am a Christian . Christian Music Today

Web links

Commons : Creed  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website (English)
• Creed at laut.de
• Creed at Discogs (English)