Creed’s diamond-selling (or, if you prefer, 11-times platinum) second album catapulted the Tallahassee foursome to US superstardom (and the UK Top 30, not that anyone had time to notice).
It’s not hard to see why they struck gold: they merged grunge’s squall with classic heavy riffing, Scott Stapp’s Eddie Vedder-style croon and, in Higher and the sombre American chart-topper With Arms Wide Open, the melody-drenched hit singles that still define them. A quarter of a century on, it’s augmented by a 1999 live show from Texas featuring much of Human Clay and the debut My Own Prison. It sizzles from the moment Stapp bellows: “Are you ready to rock?”
