A record that truly has a great divide
For those of you who don't recognise the name Scott Stapp, he was once the singer of multi-million selling Christian rock band Creed. That fact alone is enough to put some off immediately, particularly those who want nothing to do with God-bothering. It's hard to argue with the figures, though, given that all three Creed albums went to #1 and their last album sold more copies in the first week than any other rock album in 2001; it should mean that 'The Great Divide' will sell by the bucketloads - not least because Stapp has apparently returned to the style that made Creed so popular.
Except the first half of the album sounds nothing like his former band, instead Stapp has gotten in touch with his metal side - it's damn good as long as you ignore God issue (but at least it's not so obvious). Whereas with Creed his voice shared more than a few similarities with Chad Kroeger, on this record it's got an edge and bite to it. Take first song 'Reach Out', a ballsy rocker laced through with metal and a wicked riff.
Likewise, the likes of 'Fight Song' and 'Hard Way' follow the metal-rock path, and come out sounding pretty good. 'Fight Song' isn't quite as nasty or dirty as the Marilyn Manson song, but it's not far off; the tune is wild and tight at the same time although there could be less of the healing/reeling/feeling rhyming. Softer and more bluesy, 'Hard Way' balances a quiet verse with a punchy chorus - variety is good. Only the lyrics seem to be odd; for example, 'We flied around like we were superman live in a trance a different way to dance'.
It's on track six that things start to go wrong. From the beginning 'Surround Me' is weedy in comparison and has more in common with the commercial emo set than anything else. It's also when Stapp's voice reverts to a Creed-like croon, and stays like that for the remaining songs. 'The Great Divide' has the most overtly Christian reference, and the combination of god and rock seems to be a contradiction in itself.
Having said that, the worst song of the record has got to be 'Broken', all piano and preachy lyrics - there's even a gospel chorus for crying out loud! It's such a waste when the first half of the album is promising and makes it even more frustrating. 'The Great Divide' has two halves which don't match up and probably won't please either the Creed fans or harder rock fans.