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[Critique dโ€™album] Three Days Grace โ€“ Outsider

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par M. Stoneman

Every anger-induced, angst-ridden kid from the early 2000s remembers blasting MTVโ€™s greatest rock music videos. Probably through cheap stereo subwoofers rigged into your overpriced Sony flat screen (which your dad still insists was a โ€˜greatโ€™ idea at the time), or just the poor TVโ€™s internal speakers straining valiantly to cope with System of a Downโ€™s โ€˜Chop Sueyโ€™ and Linkin Parkโ€™s โ€˜One Step Closerโ€™, or perhaps Kornโ€™s โ€˜Freak On a Leashโ€™ with a little helping of 3 Doors Downโ€™s โ€˜Kryptoniteโ€™. If youโ€™re the kind of person that grew up during (or at least remembers) the โ€˜golden eraโ€™ of early 2000s nu-metal and hard rock, then you remember โ€˜I Hate Everything About Youโ€™ by Canadian post-grunge outfit Three Days Grace.

Bursting onto a new millenniumโ€™s rock scene in 2003, boasting a final total of 46 weeks on the Mainstream Rock chart, with a twangy acoustic riff and lead singer Adam Gontierโ€™s coarse, unforgiving demonization of many an abusive relationship, โ€˜I Hate Everything About Youโ€™ immediately cemented the band in the minds and hearts of all those bitter and young, finding familiarity and justification in Gontierโ€™s vengeful catharsis. The bandโ€™s first album Three Days Grace and second single โ€˜Just Like Youโ€™ swiftly followed, the latter of which being the first number one hit of the groupโ€™s career, and with crunchy, overdriven guitar riffage and Gontier once again lashing out at those having done him wrong, Three Days Grace were was blasted into fame and fortune.

Of course, itโ€™s hard to mention Three Days Grace these days without inevitably discussing Gontierโ€™s sudden departure from the band in early 2013, barely three months following the release of the groupโ€™s fourth effort, Transit of Venus. The hurried recruitment of My Darkest Days vocalist (and brother to bassist Brad) Matt Walst swiftly followed, and the Canadian hard rockers gallantly embarked upon the planned Transit of Venus promotional tour. Before long it was announced that Walst would remain a permanent replacement vocalist, effectively disbanding the lesser known My Darkest Days. The group eventually released their fifth studio effort in 2015, titled Human.

Unfortunately, while 2009 release Life Starts Now and 2013โ€™s Transit of Venus had both received relatively mixed-to-positive reception, Human proved to many what had already been heavily suspected โ€“ that without Adam Gontier at the helm, Three Days Grace had effectively lost their spark. While Walst makes for a competent enough vocalist, and tracks such as โ€˜Humanโ€™, โ€˜I Am Machineโ€™ and โ€˜The Real Youโ€™ displayed the bandโ€™s potential, the generally rather generic, lackluster material found throughout much of Human ultimately lacked any real substance or growth, and was criticized by many for its overall simplicity. Of course, whether or not Human had been just a natural misstep while the group found their feet again and 2018 release, Outsider, would see a return to better form, ultimately remained to be seen.

Unfortunately, again, if Outsiderโ€™s pre-release singles were anything to go by, the groupโ€™s sixth effort mostly came across as a complete rehash of Humanโ€™s already lesser quality material: lead single โ€˜The Mountainโ€™ treads the familiar ground of โ€˜I Am Machineโ€™, to bitterly reduced impact. A dull, rudimentary guitar riff, and Walstโ€™s tired, uninspired repetitions of โ€œevery day Iโ€™m just survivinโ€™, keep climbing the mountainโ€ have very little of the intended call to arms effect that is obviously desired. Secondary release โ€˜I Am an Outsiderโ€™ does little better, boasting what is quite possibly one of the worst choruses of Three Days Graceโ€™s career (while blatantly recycling Marilyn Mansonโ€™s โ€˜Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)โ€™ introductory guitar riff, I might add): โ€œI am an outsider, I donโ€™t care about the in-crowd, no. Iโ€™m better off on my own now.โ€ Thankfully, although still featuring a precariously average chorus, third single โ€˜Right Left Wrongโ€™ directs Outsider (ironically) into slightly better territory; itโ€™s still much of the same uninspired, chugging monotony but Walst offers a better performance vocally, and the track ends things on a fist-pumping blast of a bridge. Neil Sanderson crashes valiantly through the mix with huge aggressive percussion, and the novelty of Walstโ€™s angsty deliverance of โ€œand I donโ€™t even know where Iโ€™m going to, but I donโ€™t want any motherfucking part of youโ€ is likely to appease enough, albeit being very much on the nose.

As for what follows beyond Outsiderโ€™s pre-release material, it sadly does little more to recover things; โ€˜Me Against Youโ€™ sees Walst attempting some strange, sinister impersonation of Gerard Wayโ€™s Ma romance chimique-era delivery (โ€œyou canโ€™t win against my kind of crazyโ€), but alongside some awkwardly executed vocal processing, it genuinely sounds quite odd and lands rather flatly compared to what you can only assume he was going for. The track itself does see some deviation from the rudimentary radio-rock structure that much of Outsider relies on, but overall itโ€™s generally rather forgettable. Still recycling former ideas, โ€˜Chasing the First Timeโ€™ blatantly reuses โ€˜Chalk Outlineโ€™s fuzzy, introductory bass stabs, and similarly utilized synthesizer work. It could be forgivable if the track itself was at least okay, but after the sixth or seventh repeat of โ€œthe first time, the first highโ€ within the space of barely 20 seconds, the โ€˜hookโ€™ is dead and buried before the track even has a chance to get off the ground. In all honesty, itโ€™s about as filler as it gets for Outsider, and should have been scrapped the moment it was written. Are things now so complacent that youโ€™re content with ripping off your own material?

Although of course, credit where credit is due: the album has the occasional moment that at least slightly redeems things. โ€˜Nothing to Lose but Youโ€™ takes a stab at being Outsiderโ€™s leading ballad, and while itโ€™s no โ€˜Gone Foreverโ€™ or โ€˜Never Too Lateโ€™ and suffers from some relatively uninspired lyrical content (โ€œcause if I didnโ€™t have you, Iโ€™d be better off dead โ€“ youโ€™re the only reason Iโ€™m still aliveโ€), Walst delivers what is easily one of his best vocal performances on the record. As for the instrumental side of things, โ€˜Infra-Redโ€™ features some of the best instrumentation seen on Outsider, a catchy enough riff and some actually rather atmospheric lead guitar that works very effectively. Lyrically, the track is disappointing, but what frustrates is that itโ€™s moments such as these that prove Barry Stock can still write interesting material. Yetย once again, what could be something great is unfortunately diluted into another half-hearted, bland attempt at a radio single. On a far more positive note, we have โ€˜Strange Daysโ€™, which actually sees the band trying something a little bit new; alongside a cocky, almost southern rock guitar riff and some unnerving warbling synthesizer work, Matt Walst delivers one of the most intriguing lyrical moments of the record, when he suggests, โ€œraise a glass to the end of it all – whoโ€™s to blame when itโ€™s everyoneโ€™s fault?โ€

Now, there probably needs to be some clarification hereโ€ฆ Matt Walst is not the sole reason for the failings of Human et Outsider. Instrumentally, it canโ€™t be denied that this is the weakest itโ€™s ever been for Three Days Grace; the majority of the riffs are boring and overproduced, and the huge percussion of โ€˜Riotโ€™, โ€˜Scaredโ€™ or even โ€˜Sign of the Timesโ€™ is largely absent here too. Sure, Walst is completely out of his comfort zone (this is the guy who started his career with the likes of โ€˜Porn Star Dancingโ€™, โ€˜Move Your Bodyโ€™ and โ€˜Casual Sexโ€™), but what made Adam Gontier so effective by comparison was the simple matter of the inner demons and life experiences that fed into the lyrical content. Riot thrives on the aggressive frustration that Gontier faced during a stage of personal rehabilitation. It wasnโ€™t contrived, it was cathartic. Matt Walst is far better suited to exploring the likes of My Darkest Daysโ€™ โ€˜Sick and Twisted Affairโ€™, โ€˜Nature of the Beastโ€™ or โ€˜Goodbyeโ€™, not half-heartedly attempting to replicate Gontierโ€™s catharsis through bored, generic radio-rock choruses.

Ultimately, as far as hoping Outsider would be some sort of revitalization for the Canadian hard rockers, their 2018 release unfortunately falls very, very far from the mark. Thereโ€™s nothing fun about a band losing their spark, but when it feels so uninspired and paint-by-numbers, with a blatant focus on being safe and marketable, reacting to this work with anything less than exasperation would be an insult to the artistic integrity of previous and far superior material.ย Three Days Grace et Matt Walst have far better ability and talent than this, and by the end of it all, it’s easy to feel that this isnโ€™t a creative endeavor, but instead just an exercise in complacency and frustration.

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