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JennYThree Days Grace - Life Starts Now Album Review
September 30th 2009 22:57
Genre: Rock
Length: 43:33
Label: Jive
Three years after their platinum sophomore effort One-X, Canadian band Three Days Grace is back with their third album titled Life Starts Now. Is it an improvement over their previous releases? Read on to find out.
The opening track, Bitter Taste, immediately shows a shift in Three Days Grace's sound. Although the heavy guitars are still there, the drumming feels a lot more sophisticated and worked on than on previous albums. This time around, the drums don't just stick to one pattern throughout the whole song. Instead, there are several variations in the rhythm which, combined with the guitar solo, make this song sound different than previous 3DG tracks.
The first single, Break, is closer to the Three Days Grace of old with Adam Gontier's unmistakable voice roaring over the instrumental. The prominent bass reminded me of their first single from One-X, “Animal I Have Become.”
Any other band performing World So Cold would make it sound like a ballad dealing with heartbreak, similar to the countless rock ballads that came out these past couple of years. In Three Days Grace's case however, World So Cold sounds like one of their signature angsty tracks in the vein of their debut single “I Hate Everything About You.” Despite the new sound instrument-wise (the guitars seem to be clearer on this track), Adam's raw voice is still at the core of Three Days Grace's sound, the constant thread linking all three albums.
With Lost In You, Three Days Grace truly take a step in a new direction. Where World So Cold still had that angsty sound to it, Lost In You is a full-fledged love ballad. At first it was weird to hear the full track without having Adam screaming on the chorus, but the song quickly grows on you. It's a calming respite from the heavy sound of the three previous tracks.
A high-tempo track, The Good Life returns the listener to 3DG's heavy sound. The song itself sounds like a cross between Three Days Grace's One-X single “Riot” and Nickelback's “Burn It To The Ground” from their Dark Horse album.
No More is another heavy track but here again there are glimpses of 3DG's new sound with an excellent guitar intro which continues in the background throughout the song.
Last To Know is a beautiful piano-driven ballad, the kind of song that I never expected to see Three Days Grace perform but it's excellent. The lyrics ring true and you can't help but feel a tinge of sadness once the song is over.
Someone Who Cares is another heavy track that is closer to 3DG's early sound. The guitars are loud, Adam's voice is powerful; truly an excellent track. The opening ten seconds reminded me of Coldplay's “Spies.”
Bully, Without You and Goin' Down all show that it's in the little things that Three Days Grace have improved the most. All three are relatively heavy tracks but each have something in particular that comes out. On Bully, the production is excellent. It especially shines during the break when the instrumental goes on a Linkin Park-esque stop-and-go rhythm. On Without You, it's the guitar solo that really pops out. Finally, Adam's singing on Goin' Down gives a horror movie-like vibe to the verses. The dichotomy between his smooth singing on the verses and downright screams on the chorus makes the song even more powerful.
After the epic Goin' Down, I was kinda disappointed with Life Starts Now, the final track of the album. It went too slow in my opinion and would've been better placed after Someone Who Cares, leaving Goin' Down to end the album with a bang.
Although Three Days Grace still have the angst that's always been present in their music, their overall sound has improved as they gave more intention to the little details such as the drumming, guitar solos and the structure of the instrumentals. Adam Gontier still roars but shows that he can also sing heartbreaking ballads such as Lost In You and Last To Know. I give Life Starts Now a 4/5. This album has shown that 3DG has a lot of potential. Each album release has shown an improvement in their sound and I think they can do even better.
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