Review Summary: They should've stayed away from each other where they left off.
Creed had once been a part of a very select group of people who changed the face of a particular music style for many years. It was only after their breakup in 2002 that Creed first saw their decline in significance. But seven years later when the band rolled around to each other one more time to reunite that sound that sparked a major influence in the rock genre, the band was soon to dissipate into miniscule dust particles. Unworthy of any lasting significance anymore since the times of "Human Clay" and "My Own Prison", Creed has now mixed themselves in with the jumbled mess of band's who went down the same wrong path these men did with "Full Circle".
Aside from the band's actual talent, which is by no means a disappointment, this album fails to express any of it in a lot of areas as previous album did. Creed had undoubtedly made their stand back in 1999 with "Human Clay", and showed no signs of any member slowing down their performance. Frankly, "Weathered" did the same thing and if anything should be considered an ultimatum for its success despite the band’s declining in their musical performance. But in "Full Circle", it seems the emotional power and advantageous instrumentals put together in the past to create masterpieces, have been misused to craft an illiterate, almost childish album.
Scott Stapp being the lead singer for this piece, has shown himself up in this album, emotional and country-like vocals that compliment the album significantly, and if anything, resurrects it beyond worthiness of an awful rating. He is probably the only one in this album who shows any potential remaining intact after so many years of successful releases. His vocalist styles have always in his career showed amazing potential, and even in times of his band mates slacking off, he is still able to contradict their failures with emotional and desperate vocals. On the other note, while Scott's voice still remains decent at heart, the lyrics written for the tracks are best left ignored. Most of Scott's lyrics for the tracks in these songs show absolutely no significance, no concept and no relevance.
Brian Marshall is worthy of very few words. There is an odd genius to the method of his madness. His bass styles in this album are only purely reflected off of someone else’s part. It's as if he found no inspiration, no means of creativity, no desire to be heard. Brian is without a doubt at his worst here, if you could even say THAT. Fortunately for the group, Brian's downfall in his abilities has little impact on the rest of the product, and ultimately means nothing when in all reality; Brian never was the real packer for this album. Whatever is shown for him in this album comes off as nothing more the trite bass lines reflected off of an interesting guitar.
Mark Tremont on the guitar is one of the universe's way's of saying there is hope for the future. Scott's vocals are empowering to the album, but aside from the generic lyrics come one of the most monumental resurrections of an arid album I’ve ever heard. Mark has without a doubt put his creativity to the test, and I dare say succeeded at every he’s made in most of these tracks. "A Thousand Faces" has the best guitar hooks in it, and frankly, "Full Circle" does well in providing the listener with some good backdrops for the powerful vocals. While most of the tracks overall come as a generic influence of uninspired transistence, a few come to you with interesting chord progressions and rhythmic influences. Where the rhythm has presented itself nicely in this album, the inspiration was bland. The drums are simply another addition to this cauldron of drudging acts. Scott Phillips has never before this moment had any true reason to let his guard down, for any of the other member's sakes. But in this album, he actually puts forth some decent content while other instruments go into melody, including the rarely conceived bass. But all of this put together do come occasional decency in providing good backdrops and good beats. The melodies for this album do present themselves in a nice fashionable way, and do well in resurrecting the arid climate this album presents.
"Full Circle" is an album of tricks and deceptions. Where good hooks and intros alongside excellent melodies appear in tracks such as "Suddenly", "Rain", and even "On My Sleeve", eventually come off as pretty boring verses, and put-to-sleep chorus's, and atrocious outros. Overall, to put it simply, this album is only for the absolute die-hard Creed fans. Coincidently, I’m not one of those. With this album appearing nowhere in any sort of significance in history, this album has made its way to a very low area of my playlist. Due to lack of high end creativity, and interesting material, this album's purpose for the band's return is about as significant as when they broke up to begin with.
