Great post man. This is what I've been thinking anyway. I thought that Creed would have put out something resembling ODR and I am surprised that people are saying that the album sounds nothing like Creed. I mean really the guys didn't change that much musically since Weathered came out that ODR sounds that different. Yes it is harder and yes Mark shreds a whole lot on the album but this was all stuff that had been talked about being brought in by not just Mark but Scott as well.
I don't get why people keep saying Scott was holding them back. And Scott wouldn't allow this or that. I mean c'mon people Mark was voted guitarist of the year for what 3 years straight or something like that. Where was Scott's egomaniacal leash on Mark holding him back there, I'm sure he wouldn't want Mark getting any credit for helping make Creed what it was. I'm obviously being sarcastic there but maybe someone will see my point. I don't think anything was holding the guys back, it was the music they wanted to make at the time and ODR was somewhere along the lines of what I thought was a natural progression (of course without Scott's influence or his invisible tether cord to hold Mark and Flip back
)