At long, long, last, Three Days Grace has released a new album. I have been waiting for this day since September 22, 2009, when the band's third effort, Life Starts Now, came out. So this is kind of like Christmas Day for me. Seriously, allow me to geek out a little.
Why do I like Three Days so much? It's not that their lyrics are super-profound - they're more like raw explosions of id. It's that I love, love, love frontman Adam Gontier's voice mixed with the beautiful melodies and hard riffs. There's just something about their music that I've never seen in any other band. Three Days Grace is dark and mysterious, even when they're trying not to be. They're visceral, raw. Also, they're superb live.
Enough of that. The latest album is called Transit of Venus, released in stores yesterday. The band promoted the album by releasing a series of videos of the planet's actual transit, together with the tagline, "Some things will only happen once in your lifetime."
And indeed, this album proves that Three Days isn't afraid to experiment with style - and they usually come off better for it. I'll be honest, Life Starts Now wasn't my favorite of their albums - that honor goes to their sophomore effort, One-X. But you can't say that any of their albums sound the same - simply because they don't. "The music we were writing was a little more intricate than in the past, and we've been experimenting with new instruments. We wanted to present these new ideas concisely without going over-the-top in ambience and overall production," said drummer Neil Sanderson. The band recently announced on Facebook that they will be using a pianist, Dani Rosenoer, during live performances from now on, and posted a video of his cover of "I Hate Everything About You," Three Days' breakout hit.
The album is intricate and fresh. I'm excited to see the band returning to their hard-rock roots with songs like "Operate" (my current favorite) and "Broken Glass," but I also enjoy the beautiful acoustic work on songs like "Unbreakable Heart," and the choppy, dubstep-esque riffs on the album's first single, "Chalk Outline." The song "Expectations" is a creepy take on the girl-runs-away-to-become-a-Hollywood-actress theme. The most surprising song on the album was "Give in to Me," which for all the uninitiated, is a Michael Jackson cover. Now, don't get me wrong - I love the covers this band does ("Lose Yourself" by Eminem and "Rooster" by Alice in Chains being my favorites), but I don't know about putting a cover on a studio album. That said, it's a cool take on Michael Jackson.
I like the new direction the band is going - it's bold and original, and as the band said on Facebook, "...we're all about being real....no tracks...no faking it, no bullshit like other bands try to pull off." Right on, guys. Right on.
Stream the full album here.
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