Before we begin, there are a couple questions that must be asked:

1. Do you love God?
2. Do you love Creed?

Okay, now that that’s out of the way I probably have some explaining to do. Kutless, one of the newest bands on the Seattle-based independent Christian label Tooth & Nail that is home to other acts including Juliana Theory and MXPX, is definitely a reflection of one of their main influences, Creed.

The group, which began playing together due to their attendance of the same church, breaks no new musical ground on their eponymous release, primarily using previous conventions laid by mainstream hard rock acts. The resemblance is so close that it’d be easy to think that Kutless was just taking mainstream hits and changing the lyrics to reflect their strong Christian beliefs.

While singer Jon-Micah Sumrall tends to resemble Scott Stapp vocally on most occasions, there are a few songs that stand out because of sections with a change in vocal style. The first is "Pride Away" with its rap breakdown with one minute left in the track that made me a feel a bit better about thinking the band would sound like Linkin Park based on the cover shot of the band. The second, and quite possibly the best track on the album with the melodic flange guitar part that breaks into a heavy chorus with Sumrall briefly sporting a style resembling Scott Weiland, is "Tonight".

In reality, this whole review wasn’t entirely necessary because your answers to the questions initially asked would determine how you felt about the album. If you answered "yes" to question one, you will definitely love the album, even if you don’t like Creed. There’s one thing I learned from my trip to the skate demonstration that was sponsored by Luis Palau and that is that even if you don’t like the music, or the skateboarding, if whatever is going on has to do with God and you really love God, you’ll love whatever it is. The fact that Kutless doesn’t shy away from the fact that they are deeply Christian will only add to this effect. Now, if you answered "yes" to question two, chances are very high that you will like the album due to the band’s tendency to sound like Creed and other commercially successful hard rock bands. If you answered "no" to both questions, I’m surprised you even bothered reading down this far because chances are you already decided this CD sucked the second I mentioned Creed.