Three Days Grace - Life Starts Now Review

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Tracklist:
1. Bitter Taste
2. Break
3. World So Cold
4. Lost In You
5. The Good Life
6. No More
7. Last To Know
8. Someone Who Cares
9. Bully
10. Without You
11. Goin' Down
12. Life Starts Now

Release Date: 09/22/2009

user rating

2.7
average

Chart.

other reviews

BassDemon333 (3)
While it can be debated that this is their most mature work to date, Life Starts Now proves that 3DG...

Pessimist (2.5)
Albeit it's not 3DG's most original album to date, Life Starts Now is the band's first step in the r...

CarsonBoulderfist (2.5)
On their third full-length effort, Three Days Grace searches for a progression in there sound. What ...

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On 5 Lists

2.0
poor

Gregory Kearns USER (39 Reviews)

2009-09-19 | 144 comments | 8,062 views

Summary: Three Days Grace release their 2003 debut album once again.

14 of 14 thought this review was well written

It has been three years since Three Days Graces' One-X, and the band have finally returned with their third studio album, Life Starts Now. Previous installments from the band turned out to be no more than mainstream rock albums that were compromised mostly of three-chord songs and a heavy coat of production paint. Nearly all of the tracks came custom-made with a blunt and unimaginative set of lyrics that singer Adam Gontier was somehow able to make believable and convincing. As it came to pass, the band flourished, particularly thanks to the easily identifiable singles that gave the common man an anthem to shout and sing along to while the rest of us shook our heads and wondered at the state of the music industry. Now the band has returned and promised a better album, one that is supposedly filled with jam sessions and guitar solos. Does Life Starts Now deliver on Three Days Grace’s promise, or is it merely a rehash of the band’s popular debut once again?

Opening track “Bitter Taste” is evidence hinting that the band has indeed pulled the same card out of their deck for the third consecutive time in a row. A simple riff starts the song, and Adam follows with a typical verse and chorus, delivering a hook that’s too forced and contrived in nature to be convincing. However, there is a guitar solo here, and it’s actually pretty decent in comparison to what is usually found in most mainstream rock albums. This song is an example of what the listener can expect from the rest of the album as it mostly comprises of the band's typical work that features elementary lyrics and chord progressions, give or take an interesting bridge section within a song every now and then.

Ever searching for a way to appeal to the masses, the band shoots straight for the fans that fell for One-X’s hopeful ballad single, “Never Too Late”. Fourth track “Lost in You” is a future hit single in-the-making and is practically bagging up its belongings for its inevitable trip to the top of the charts. Those turned off by the last album's popular ballad will find nothing of interest here, and “Last To Know” continues much in the same vein offering love/loss lyrics that sound a bit out of place on a Three Days Grace album. Once again, Adam’s vocal delivery seems quite forced, as if he is trying to imply a catchy hook instead of just letting it come naturally as the song progresses. This brings up another point that needs to be mentioned, in that the majority of hooks and choruses to be found on this album are quite weak and anticlimactic in nature. In contrast, those that can be found the band’s back catalog were much catchier on average as the band successfully implemented the hooks properly and put what little they had to good use.

Three Days Grace has a nasty habit of offering up “dumb” rockers, those that merely repeat their respective song titles over and over again to get some point across that doesn’t really need to be mentioned in the first place. Songs like “Break”, “Bully”, “Goin’ Down”, and the title track, all turn out to be examples of boring and lazy songwriting, efforts that turn out to be no more than recycled songs that the band has already released years ago. Three Days Grace sound as if they are running out of song ideas, both instrumentally and lyrically, and their attempts to make up for their lack of inspiration are generic and mediocre at best. If this is the best that they can offer after three years than they should probably reconsider their chemistry as a band. However, if they are just after money, than they should at least learn to write a new set of catchy songs instead of putting out the same batch with a new coat of paint every three years.

Three Days Grace are back, and they've brought with them “rehash number two” of their famous debut album. Life Starts Now is likely to do relatively well in the music market, thanks mostly in part to the band’s popular name and a few successful singles that will probably gain momentum in the coming months on the charts. However as whole, Life Starts Now suffers from poor songwriting, horrible lyrics, and a simple instrumental aspect of the music that has just now begun to grow. I hate to break it to the band, but life started quite a long time ago and its a shame they have just now gotten a glimpse of it. As history has proven, life contains a certain aspect that causes it to evolve and grow stronger over time, and it is this very characteristic that Three Days Grace do not seem to have.

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