Human Clay

Human Clay is the second album by American rock band Creed, released on September 28, 1999 through Wind-Up Records. It was certified 11x platinum and Diamond by the RIAA, and is 54th on the top 100 selling albums of all time in the United States (as of February 2007). It ranks as the #8 best selling album of the last 20 years in the US. The album was the band's first to hit #1 in the U.S., where it debuted with first week sales of 315,000, and stayed on top for two weeks. As of May 2012, it has sold 11,579,000 copies in the United States alone, according to Soundscan numbers. It has also been certified 6 times platinum in Canada, 5 times in Australia and 7 times in New Zealand,and 4 times in Switzerland among others, selling an estimated 20 million copies worldwide. The fourth single "With Arms Wide Open" won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. The album had three videos released from it: "Higher", "What If," and "With Arms Wide Open," the last of which was voted the 92nd best music video of all-time by VH1 who also ranked it #4 on the "25 Greatest Power Ballads". VH1 listed "Higher" as one of the greatest hard rock songs of all time in 2009. Human Clay is the only Creed album without a title track.

According to Mark Tremonti, the album cover represents a crossroad which every man finds himself at in his life and the man of clay represented "our actions, that what we are is up to us, that we lead our own path and make our own destiny." The title of the album comes from a lyric in "Say I" ("The dust has finally settled on the field of human clay"), a song which carries the same message.

This was the final album until 2009's Full Circle to feature Brian Marshall on bass guitar; he departed from the band shortly after the tour for the album in August 2000. Mark Tremonti filled as the bassist on their third album, Weathered, while Brett Hestla became their touring bassist. However, the band has since reunited with Marshall.

Human Clay was ranked #5 on Billboard's 200 Albums of the Decade in 2009. The album has sold over 11.5 million copies in the United States and a total of 20 million worldwide, making it the best selling album of Creed's career and one of the best-selling albums in the United States it spent a record 104 weeks on the chart survey.

The album will be played in its entirety during Creed's April 2012 "2 NIGHTS" tour.