Three Days Grace
Human

Release Date: 2015 | Tracklist

Coming hot off the heels of 2012’s ‘Transit of Venus’, Three Days Grace appeared as tight knit a group as ever. Things took an unexpected turn, however, when frontman Adam Gontier announced his departure early the next year, stating that he was ready for the next stage of his career. The band wasted no time in finding a replacement in Matt Walst, formerly the vocalist of ‘My Darkest Days’ and younger brother of bassist Brad Walst. Drummer and backing vocalist Neil Sanderson promised a heavier, ‘fresh’ vibe to come in the band’s new material. Singles ‘Painkiller’ and ‘I am Machine’ closed out 2014 for Three Days Grace, with the parent album ‘Human’ released in March of 2015.
Fulfilled promises of ‘heavier’ music are a dime a dozen, and ‘Human’ certainly doesn’t dispel that notion. Lead track and third single ‘Human Race’ opens with a beautiful and magnetic declaration, ‘I don’t belong here, not in this atmosphere’. Unfortunately, that’s where the song’s credentials end, both lyrically and musically. What follows are a series of declarations (e.g. It’s hard sometimes, keeping up with the pace) followed by ‘Yeah, yeah’. The padding isn’t quite as overt in the next track, the aforementioned lead single ‘Painkiller’, which opens on a rather generic but admittedly catchy guitar riff. ‘Fallen Angel’ and ‘Landmine’ follow, the former nothing more than a requisite calm track and the latter a hooky but ultimately unrewarding heavier romp. ‘I am Machine’, the band’s second single, fits right in with the theme of ‘catchy but infantile’ that has encapsulated the first half of the album. ‘There’s beauty in the bleeding, at least you feel something’ croons Walst, exorcising himself of his apparent leftover teenager angst. The next several songs do nothing to redeem the dreary first half of the album. ‘Car Crash’, in particular, comes off as almost comically inept in the lyrical department, with Walst bouncing between the role of victim and onlooker and declaring ad nauseum “I should have stopped at the red light, the red light.” ‘The End is Not the Answer’ picks things up slightly with its earnest attempt at comforting a lost soul, even being so bold as to declare ‘in this life, not the next’. Finally, ‘The Real You’ closes out the album in stereotypically sappy fashion, with Walst declaring ‘I see the real you. Even if you don’t, I do.’ Tackling an album with the theme of human frailty was apparently a tall order for Matt Walst, whose claim to fame prior to Three Days Grace was writing a song called ‘Porn Star Dancing’. We can only hope that his next outing demonstrates more of a seasoned approach to both the musical and lyrical aspects of songwriting.

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