Bands today can only look at the success of Creed as a myth. They were huge for a couple of years and did very well for themselves. I know people probably got tired of hearing Creed back then because they were on heavy rotation on radio, MTV, everywhere. I don't think bands today have a chance to have that kind of success even if they did write a bunch of heavy pop songs.
Creed and Nickelback ruled back in that time period. It was metal, but had all of the pop song elements. Some people just don't realize that the average listener doesn't care about polyrhythms and deep lyrics that you have to think about or are open to interpretation. Most people just want to listen to tunes while they go about daily business.
Animals as Leaders is a great band, top notch musicians, at one point they were pushing the envelope of what technical proficiency is. As a guitar player myself, it is crazy the amount of creativity that the band has, but it is still hard to listen to, and isn't something that I would play during a party with a mixture of friends. The music itself is challenging to listen to.
Being an older gentlemen that has bills to pay, and hope to retire at some point in my life, if you asked who I would rather be, it would be Mark Tremonti all day long. I'm sure Tosin is doing ok, but AAL will never generate the amount of revenue that bands like Creed and Nickelback have in their careers. This is not to sale that album sales are an indicator of talent, but it definitely is an indicator of financial freedom.
