Three Days Grace by Three Days Grace

Three Days Grace Animal Promo Rare Album

Three Days Grace is a moody hard rock album with a heavy edge and an angry feel to it. This Toronto based trio have created a very powerful hard rock album filled with songs about inner struggle, deception and of course there are plenty of love-hate relationship themes throughout the album.

Their debut album was produced by Gavin Brown (musician/songwriter/producer), who also produced albums by Big Sugar and a new little known act from Toronto that go by the name of Billy Talent. (Watch out for them as well...)

Three Days Grace line-up:

Adam Gontier - Vocals/Guitar
Brad Walst - Bass
Neil Sanderson - Drums

The whole band was raised outside of Toronto, Gontier and Walst both hail from Norwood, a very small town about 25 minutes from where Sanderson grew up in Peterborough. The boys have been together for more than a decade and they have paid their dues playing in countless bars throughout the Muskokas.

Sanderson reveals in an interview that they were influenced by bands like Kyuss and Sunny Day Real Estate. Who? That was my very first thought too! Anyway, in my view, mix a little Creed with a little Chevelle and what you basically get is Three Days Grace. I can’t oversimplify things any more than that! Yet, it’s not exactly like Creed and it’s not exactly like Chevelle. It’s a little different, it’s not like any ONE band I know that’s for sure. It’s really like Creed meets Chevelle meets Three Doors Down meets Eve 6 meets any other band with maybe a little stoner/sludge sound...and that’s a very big maybe? More confused now than before I started, eh? Don’t worry about it so much, confusion is good, just enjoy the music!

The album is simply too good to ignore. My daughter handed this CD to me and said: “I bet you 5$ that after you listen to this, you’ll want to keep it for your own?” I immediately accepted her bet! I took out my wallet and gave her 5 bucks and said: “I don’t even need to listen to it, 5$ is a really good price for a CD, thanks a lot!” ;)

But after letting it spin in my stereo all day, I had to give her more money. It’s a keeper! The targeted audience is more than obvious. But I don’t mind. The biggest thing for me was that the music lured me to write about the album...it is that good folks!

Artist: Three Days Grace
Album Title: Three Days Grace
Genre: Hard Rock/Alternative Metal
Release date: 2003-07-22
Similar to: Creed, Chevelle, Three Doors Down

Track Listing:

1. Burn - 4m27s - (****)
2. Just Like You - 3m08s - (*****)
3. I Hate Everything About You - 3m51s - (*****)
4. Home - 4m21s - (*****)
5. Scared - 3m13s - (****)
6. Let You Down - 3m46s - (*****)
7. Now or Never - 3m00s - (***)
8. Born Like This - 3m33s - (****)
9. Drown - 3m28s - (****)
10. Wake Up - 3m25s - (*****)
11. Take Me Under - 4m20s - (***)
12. Overrated - 3m30s - (****)


What I did not like...

On the down side, the album contains mostly slow to mid-paced tracks and I was a little annoyed by the snare drum on some of the tracks. Now, I own a very decent stereo system, actually my friends would tell you that I’m quite proud of my stereo equipment. So when I’ve got a CD playing and the drummer sounds like he’s banging away on tin cans, I started wondering about the production. I mean, I tried everything, I tweaked the eq every which way, I even played the CD in my daughter’s Panasonic portable bass boost CD system but in the end, I was fighting a losing battle. The “ing” was getting the best of me. I know a good engineer or sound man will take the “ing” out of anything. OK, so what exactly am I talking about here? What it is...on a few tracks when the drumstick hits the snare, it actually sounds like a “ting” rather than a nice crisp “snap.” The bass drum and toms are ok, this is only limited to the snare drum. Mind you this may very well be the sound the band was going for, as lately, I have heard this on several other albums as well. This is a very minor complaint though. I certainly won’t throw away the disc because of it. Some may actually find this “cool”, but I personally can do without the “ing.”