Review Summary: Saint Asonia is a genuine and honest album with a lot to offer to the rock scene. This album hits home with almost every track and is definitely one that will be remembered for years to come.
After Adam Gontier's sudden departure from Three Days Grace, his future was uncertain; as was Mike Mushok's when Jason Newsted shut down his project "Newsted" and Staind went on their second hiatus. For a long time we assumed Gontier was going to produce an acoustic solo album but after early-mid 2013 no more information was surfacing. These musicians would slowly fade into obscurity for the next year only being remembered by their previous work. Then on a random day in May 2015 a teaser was released for a new project dubbed "Saint Asonia". We're here to review the fruits bore from that project. The supergroup was revealed to consist of Gontier, Mushok, Corey Lowery, and Rich Beddoe. On July 31 they released their debut self titled tudio album with the singles "Better Place" and "Blow Me Wide Open" backing it.
When analyzing an album of this particular nature we must first look into the roots of each of the members. This is a supergroup so there are many different influences that culminate into the album we have here. Adam Gontier is most notably from the band Three Days Grace in which during his tenure produced many hit singles including "Never Too Late, "Break", "Riot", "Animal I Have Become", and "I Hate Everything About You". These influences are most noticeable in the gritty vocal approach Adam takes on this record, as it sounds like it could be a follow-up to Groundswell's (the band that preceeded Three Days Grace) Wave of Popular Feeling. The Staind influence is also very prevalent from Mushok's end as the album has a unique grunge style to it in the guitars. There is also much variation in the song types as well ranging from acoustic tracks to slower tracks, as well as the obvious in your face rockers. Better Place and Fairy Tale definitely fall into the latter category, while the song "Trying To Catch Up With The World" falls into the former. Gontier's uncle Tom Duffy played bass on most of the album and Lowery was hired after the fact so we can't judge his performance in full, but he definitely holds his own when this album is played live. Songs like Let Me Live My Life also give off a strong Three Days Grace vibe when held up to songs such as "The Good Life" off of Life Starts Now (the two songs sound almost identical in structure), and the lyrics are fantastic.
On the topic of lyricism, Adam wrote all the lyrics on the album while Mushok wrote most of the guitar parts. A lot of the songs deal with themes of depression, betrayal, and change. This is definitely notable in the Adam's desperate tone on tracks such as Trying To Catch Up With The World and Waste My Time. A lot can be inferred from the subject matter of a few of his songs (i.e. Better Place and Let Me Live My Life), but all of them are very well written without taking any pot shots at any former bands or their members.
Overall Saint Asonia is a genuine and honest album with a lot to offer to the rock scene. This album hits home with almost every track and is definitely one that will be remembered for years to come.
