Getting right back to where they started from, Creed reunites for Full Circle, putting all tensions -- including whatever unpleasantry existed with their long-departed original bassist Brian Marshall -- to rest and cutting their first album in eight years.

Full Circle is a none-too-subtle allusion to how they're getting back to their beginnings, but a cynic could say they never got much past it, toiling the same weathered ground on each of their albums, but this bears some subtle differences, particularly in how Creed sounds heavier yet more open than they did in the past.

While they're still delivered with the finesse of a hammer on a railroad spike, there's more air within the ballads, more skill in their attack, a looseness to their playing that allows them to take a stab at white-boy blues on the title track.

"Full Circle" is one of several songs built on prominent acoustic guitar, an indication of the greater color palette here than on, say, Human Clay, and that lack of reliance on thudding guitars does make Full Circle less wearying than earlier Creed, but don't mistake this for subtlety: ambiguity is not Creed's friend, they still italicize, bold, and underscore every emotion, the only thing missing is towering hooks as blunt as their intent, which in a way is too bad because this is the most sonically palatable Creed has been on record.