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The great divide
Creed’s survivors regroup as Alter Bridge
BY SEAN RICHARDSON

At the beginning of the summer, Creed announced they were breaking up. The rock superstars’ last tour had been a turbulent one, and when they reconvened to make a new album, they discovered the chemistry was gone. Still, the news came as a surprise: just five years removed from the blockbuster CD Human Clay (Wind-up) and the #1 hit "With Arms Wide Open," the band should have been in their prime. Instead, the songwriting duo of Scott Stapp and Mark Tremonti have gone their separate ways: Stapp is now a solo act, and Tremonti has a new group, Alter Bridge, who are playing Avalon on October 8.

By the time the break-up became official, Tremonti had already been preparing for life after Creed. "In the time where we didn’t know what the future was, I was writing fanatically," the guitarist reveals. "When we got together with Scott one last time to see if we could do a fourth Creed record, I just pulled some stuff off the top of my head. I wasn’t about to pull out all the stuff I had been working on until I knew if we were going to stay together. Once I figured that we weren’t vibing, it was pretty easy for me. I knew I was going to be more prepared than I had ever been in my life."

So far, Creed fans have been receptive to Alter Bridge: the band’s first album, One Day Remains (Wind-up), just debuted in the Top 10, and the single "Open Your Eyes" is already a rock-radio staple. In addition to Tremonti, the line-up includes Human Clay holdovers Brian Marshall (bass) and Scott Phillips (drums) along with frontman Myles Kennedy from Washington rockers the Mayfield Four. Kennedy is a huge asset: he’s closer to Chris Cornell than to Scott Stapp, with all the vocal firepower that comparison implies. On "Open Your Eyes," he sings a tune that should be familiar to fans of Creed’s very first crossover hit, "One": "Will they open their eyes/And realize we are one." He slips into a lithe falsetto at the end of the pleasant rocker, but the song’s real star is Tremonti, who unleashes his inner Zakk Wylde on a ferocious guitar solo.

There’s more where that came from on One Day Remains, which recasts the guitarist as a bona fide shredder. "Back in the My Own Prison days, I wasn’t as good of a player," he admits, "so it wasn’t a necessity for me to get that out there. Once that album was written, we had this way of thinking that didn’t really fit guitar solos. The Creed sound was really to the point. This band is more about fun, being loose, and not compromising anything. Putting out an album that you think is the best it could be instead of worrying about length or which radio stations are going to play it."

Pressed to name some of his favorite players, Tremonti sounds more like a Musicians Institute wanna-be than a grunge-pop icon. "It’s funny, I never really grew up with any guitar heroes. I had bands that I loved, but I never had the patience to learn anybody else’s stuff. Now that I’m older and I want to get as good as I can, I look to people like Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai, and John Petrucci. I’m honored to do a spot on Michael Angelo’s new record. That’s going to be intimidating. He’s pretty much the baddest shredder who ever walked the face of the planet."

On One Day Remains, Alter Bridge expand on Creed’s most intriguing side: hard-rock psychedelia that crosses late Metallica with late Led Zeppelin. The title track opens with a blistering wah-wah riff, and the chorus bleeds empathy: " ’Cause I see in you/More than you’ll ever know/And I ask you why/You question the strength inside." On "Find the Real" and "Metalingus," Kennedy’s howl searches for the meaning of life while Tremonti pounds out some of his sleaziest riffs.

Some of Creed’s middle-of-the-road trappings remain — bland metaphors, monotonous grooves — but Kennedy, who helped Tremonti finish five songs, does a fine job of replacing Stapp as a writing partner. Tremonti aims for another "With Arms Wide Open" on "In Loving Memory," a moving tribute to his late mother. With one of his inimitable guitar intros and a nice balance between celebration and mourning, it hits the power-ballad spot. The album ends on a high note with "The End Is Here," a towering metaphysical jam with more than a hint of Jimmy Page exoticism. Creed may be gone, but the hammer of the gods is in good hands with Alter Bridge.

Alter Bridge perform on October 8 at Avalon, 15 Lansdowne Street in Boston; call (617) 262-2424.


Issue Date: August 27 - September 2, 2004
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