Proof of Life [Best Buy Exclusive]

Scott Stapp's solo career got interrupted by the 2009 Creed reunion, so it took him a full eight years to get around to following up 2005's The Great Divide. Perhaps that's why he feels the need to call this sophomore set Proof of Life: he's reiterating that he's still here, still raising a ruckus. Like The Great Divide, Stapp is intent on keeping most of Proof of Life operating on a gut level. It comes crashing in on a cascade of heavy guitars as Stapp testifies "I'm not evil/No matter what you think/I'm just human/There's a part of you just like me," the first line on an album that could be read as a loose song cycle about losing faith then finding, well, "Proof of Life," then discovering there is a "New Day Coming" assisted by the help of god ("Jesus Was a Rockstar," before learning he was just "Dying to Live"). Along the way, Stapp does occasionally buff the finish so the album doesn't seem entirely like a throwback to the glory days of new-millennial post-grunge -- the album's cen