Canter Bridge

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Creed was still getting over the need to be profound when this 1999 release came out, but the results were promising. The band has its best moments when it relaxes. It manages to achieve depth better than than when darkness-cum-wisdom overshadows higher goals.

The musical pieces were coming together for Creed in 1999, that much is true. Things had improved upon the equally promising—though from a lower starting point—My Own Prison cd.

Stapp was singing his heart out, the basis was acquiring a tight, punchy sound, and Scott Phillips drumming was just awaiting its moment to break out.

‘With Arms Wide Open’ is the exception, and almost Great Leap Forward into what Creed would become by the time the subsequent Weathered album reached the listening public. It is a poignant attempt to articulate grace from within the confines of limited knowledge. ‘Arms’ greets the birth of a child with an elegance and emotion that one does not often associate with grunge bands. It is an artistic and aesthetic breakthrough of sorts for a band that would sound so good on this album’s successor so as to make us almost forget that there was a time when we awaited a breakthrough.

Weathered, when it came, would put it all in perspective.