The Real Heavies
James Hunter
3.5 stars (doesn't look good, but it's usually the highest rating, they
hardly give out 4's even)

On Weathered, Creed's lucid powerhouse of a thrid album, the orlando,
florida trio emerge as masters of hard-rock atmosphere. As Soundgarden
proved with superunknown, there are a million little intricacies to
pulling off what sounds like big enormous rock. and creed are all over
them: weathered is rock of unusual focus and arrest, a beautifully
distressed dance of sustained style and unapologetic emotion.

on songs such as "who's got my back" and "my sacrifice" the current
single, creed (now without brian marshall) issue exhilirating blasts of
sculptured guitar. mark tremonti's playing and scott stapps gorgeously
able tenorbaritone cohere with sriking symmetry and synchronicity.
ironically, for a band known by its critics for its overblown
romanticism, what's remarkable about Creed's album is its rich
restraint. stapp remains a man who could sing for the stage, so long as
he could wear leather pants. but he and tremonti don't rely on
particularly catchy melodies or cheesy monster riffs; they just talk to
each other - with a connected confidence.

creed take nothing lightly for granted. on "stand here with me" stapp
sings his earnest lyrics as if he might be cross-examined on the import
of every word. his voice cuts against an edgy, restless bed of
tremonti's guitar notes before the guitarist changes his rhythm, and
stapp sings, "so now you live on in the words of a song/you're a
melody," as the music gets more frenetic. where other bands may have
lightened up their tone by their third album creed keep exploring the
intricacies of their own heavy-rock calibrations (salma note: ummmm yeah
they did???). Timea nd again on the album - as the title tune rocks out
slyly, or during the harmonic churning of "hide" - creed obviously take
pleasure in their command of these details.

weathered crests with "dong' stop dancing," a song that begins with
stapp declaring how "wicked" and murky life sometiems is. tremonti
starts up with the creed equivalent of strumming - a bunch of slightly
metallic sounding chords swiftly voiced, accumulating a spectacular
sonic rush. on the choruses, stapp implores - and you really have to
hear it with the music - "children don't stop dancing/ believe you can
fly." it's a post-post metal gospel song for a post-post cold war world,
a totally credible soundtrack in the grand rock tradition of viruosity
and romance.