So I finally get to do this post! I'm really excited about talking about my top 10 songs from this awesome band because all ten of these songs are amazing and deserve to be talked about. This list was very hard to make, but I'm glad I did because I didn't think I could. But yeah, without further ado, let's jump right in!
INTRODUCTION
Three Days Grace is a Canadian rock band. The band was formed by singer and guitarist Adam Gontier, drummer Neil Sanderson, and bassist Brad Walst in 1997 in Ontario. Guitarist Barry Stock joined those three in 2003, the year that their self-titled debut album was released and hit the charts. The singles "I Hate Everything About You", "Just Like You", and "Home" helped propel this album to success, with the former being noted as their signature hit. However, around the time that the latter two were being released, Gontier was in bad shape due to a drug addiction, and knowing that the band couldn't continue with him being that sick, he went to rehab in 2005. While in treatment, he wrote a lot of lyrics describing how he felt during that time, a lot of which ended up on their second album, One X, which was released in June of 2006. Songs such as "Animal I Have Become", "Pain", "Never Too Late", and "Riot" made the album receive generally positive reviews from critics (like me). After three years of touring for it, they released Life Starts Now, which took a turn from their more angry sound that everyone was used to. People seemed to like that, as they ended up touring with bands such as Nickelback, Buckcherry, and My Darkest Days after its release. In 2012, they released Transit of Venus, but just three months later, the band confirmed that Gontier had left due to then-unexplained reasons. He was soon replaced with Walst's brother and My Darkest Days lead singer Matt Walst. So far, they have released two albums with him, 2015's Human and 2018's Outsider. So you ask, what's the big deal about them, and why do the critics and the general public really love them? Well, I will attempt to show why by sharing my top ten favorite songs from them. Let's do it!
10. Chalk Outline (from Transit of Venus)
This song is really good for a hard rock song released in a decade fueled by computer-generated instruments. I'm glad that like the Foo Fighters, Three Days Grace didn't abandon that sound when this new decade rolled around. As for this song, I like the theme in it, which if I remember correctly is about the feeling you have when someone just leaves you. That is the usual kind of thing for Three Days Grace, and I like how they continued it on into this decade. The hard rock feel in this song makes me feel so good knowing that it goes against what's popular. Really good song, and it deserved its Rock Song of the Year award given by Loudwire.
9. The Good Life (from Life Starts Now)
If this was an average artist I was ranking, this song would've been top 5, maybe even top 3. It hurt to put this song this low on the list because of how good it is, but I guess that shows how much I love Three Days Grace. This is an average great hard rock song for me, as it has some cool, heavy guitars, along with a faster tempo that gives it energy. And like most of these, the chorus is the best part because of how awesome it feels. This isn't quite my favorite Life Starts Now song, but I'm glad it was a single because it feels like a good one to me.
8. Pain (from One X)
This is one of their more well-known songs, and although it took a while to really click with me, I enjoy it quite a bit. It's not like a big banger like "The Good Life" or anything, but when he yells, "rather...feel...PAIN!" it's pretty awesome. And considering that there were a couple great absolute bangers off of One X, this is really good for a slower one. The theme of the song, according to Gontier, is the feeling that, "you're constantly numb to things around you, thanks to your own actions, and it's about being sick of that feeling." I'm pretty sure a lot of us have experienced that before, so it's a good idea for a song in my opinion. And Three Days Grace is the perfect band to make it, and because of that it's really good.
7. Just Like You (from Three Days Grace)
This is the first of three songs from their self-titled debut album to appear on this list, and while the highest one is #3, I still think the album is amazing and might be their best work to date. While I didn't give this song too much praise when reviewing their self-titled album, I grew into it a lot recently, so I decided to give it a spot on this list. That said, I think the way the song is structured and how it flows is really nice. Also, that main guitar riff that you hear in the intro and throughout the verses is really nice. The meaning behind this song is, as Gontier says, that you're often told how to live your life by your parents or someone else, and how you can stand up to it and choose your own path. This theme reminds me a lot of another great song that has a similar meaning, "Numb" by Linkin Park, for some reason. But yeah, I really enjoy this song, and despite what I might have said about it on my review of their self-titled album, it deserves to have been a single because the side of them shown here is really awesome.
6. Painkiller (from Human)
This is the only song on this list that features Matt Walst on lead vocals rather than Adam Gontier. And the reason why I put this this high is that when I heard that Three Days Grace had a new lead singer starting in 2013, I was quite afraid to listen to their music after that, just because it might be so different that it's not that good. But surprisingly, I really like Walst's contributions to the band, and I'm glad they picked him as a new lead singer because he has a lot of talent. And while I think this song would've been much better if Gontier sang it, Walst has a really good effort here. This song, which drummer Neil Sanderson says is about how everyone is addicted to something, has a really high energy level, which you could probably tell by now is something I love to hear from Three Days Grace and in general, and that's the first thing that makes me love it. And there's also the fact that this song was released in 2014, which was definitely not a year when you could hear rock songs with guitars on the radio. I like how they continued their classic alternative metal sound this far into this decade. Overall amazing song that really shows that a band doesn't always go downhill after getting a new lead singer.
5. I Hate Everything About You (from Three Days Grace)
Yes, you read that right, this band's most commercially successful hit is only at #5 on this list. Although this song is amazing and the song that got me into them, I think that it isn't very original and that another band could've done it and it would've been just as good. But in terms outside of this list, I don't care. I still think that this song was very well-made and deserved its success. It has a catchy guitar riff and an awesome chorus that gets you every time. And the fact that this song was their debut single is just cool, because it sounds like something by a band that's been around for a while. But just like a lot of my favorite bands and artists, their most popular song is not always their best song, so if you're making a list and feel like you should put the most popular song first, you don't have to. It's fine.
4. Break (from Life Starts Now)
If I remember correctly, this was the second song I came to really love from Three Days Grace after "I Hate Everything About You". And knowing how good I thought "I Hate Everything About You" was, I was excited to hear more from them when I was listening to older alternative charts. In fact, my last.fm account says that the week before I really got into them, I had 47 scrobbles (or plays) for "I Hate Everything About You". But by the next week, I had ten brand new plays for this song, including seven in a three-day span, because the first time I listened to it, I was shook. The theme about wanting to break away from a situation that you're in that you don't like stuck out so much to me, along with the extremely high energy level, really showed me what this band could do aside from their commercially successful songs like "I Hate Everything About You" and "Lost In You", and that started my true love for them. Seems like a really good song for only number four on this list, right? Well, then there's no telling how legendary all of our top three songs are. So let's introduce them.
3. Home (from Three Days Grace)
I know, I know, I ranked "I Hate Everything About You" higher than this when reviewing their self-titled album. But I feel like that for this list, "Home" should be higher because it represents Three Days Grace's sound way better than "I Hate Everything About You" does. So it is. As for everything else, it's not quite as upbeat as some of their other songs like "Break" and "The Good Life", but that doesn't stop Adam Gontier's aggressive voice from coming out and showing what it can do. In fact, it's the first thing that catches my attention when the song kicks in. According to songmeanings.com, the song is apparently about a typical conflict between a parent and a teenager, and although some say it's about a conflict between a boyfriend and a girlfriend, I personally disagree because it sounds way more like parent vs. teenager to me. Pretty interesting to me because I know what it's like, as I've been through that many times. Aside from the lyrics and vocals, the heavy sound in this song is just cool. Like I said before, it's not a total banger because it doesn't have as high of a tempo as some of their other songs, but everything else revolving around that makes up for it. And by far the most satisfying part (at least to me) is when Gontier belts out the chorus. You can feel what's going on in the song then, and as someone who loves hard rock, it's satisfying and fitting for me. So yeah, everything about this song is amazing, and if something was changed, it wouldn't be the same. I don't know if this is my favorite song off of Three Days Grace, but it sounds the most like a great Three Days Grace song, which does so much for me, which is why it's this high.
Alright, so now that everything else is done. it's time for our absolutely legendary top 2. And honestly, picking which one of these songs to put at #1 was an extremely hard decision for me. Both of these songs are truly amazing in every way, and while one was more popular than the other, I like them both pretty much the same amount. But I had to make a decision, so I did. The only real reason why I put my #1 pick at #1 is because I discovered it before my #2, but just note that they are interchangeable because they're both just so good and it's almost impossible to make a true decision. So take that into note when I reveal my top 2. Let's do it.
2. Riot (from One X)
On an average hard rock list with this song on it, in most circumstances I wouldn't hesitate to put a song like this at the top spot. But as I just said, this song is pretty much just as good as my #1, I just put this here because I had to. Anyway, if you're trying to get into super hard rock music but don't know where to start, here you go. This is the perfect example of a great 2000s hard rock song because it has pretty much everything I need. It's super upbeat, has that super fast and catchy guitar riff, and has such an energy-filled chorus, so much that sometimes you can't help but just get up when you hear it. The lyrics in this song don't go too deep, but I love them. They're basically about being really angry to the point where you're just not being afraid to show it. In other words, normal Three Days Grace stuff. And you can definitely tell from listening to it that Three Days Grace were the perfect band to make it, because nothing can sing these lyrics better than Adam Gontier's angry-sounding voice. So not much else to say here. This is a pretty simple song, but no one said that a song has to be super complex to be good, so that doesn't bring this song down any. Everything else added to it makes it even better, which makes this #2 spot on this amazing list of songs very deserving. But the #1 song, although being just as good, was also pretty deserving. And considering that there is one big hit of theirs I haven't talk about, my #1 shouldn't be that hard to guess. It is...
1. Animal I Have Become (from One X)
I don't say this about many songs, but other than one or two small things, this song is flawless. It just has lots of good things in it put together to make something just so amazing. I could spend hours raving on about everything great about this song, but I don't have the time or effort to do that, so let's make it short. I love the guitar riffs that come all throughout the song, and the first few measures where it's just the kick drum and the bass is really cool as well. The verses sound pretty much perfect, as if just one thing was changed it wouldn't be the same. And that brings us to the story behind the song, which might be my favorite thing about it. Basically, after the band finished touring for and promoting their self-titled debut album, lead singer Gontier became addicted to drugs so much that it was preventing the band from starting work on their second album. He has said that during that time, he was just so angry and abusive and couldn't figure out who he was. So while he was in rehab for that addiction, he wrote a lot of songs for a possible second Three Days Grace album, and this song was among that bunch. It's basically about that rough time he went through and how much he wanted to get out of it. It doesn't sound like too much, but to be honest, this is one of the most well-written songs I have heard in quite a long time, because you can tell what he was going through just by listening to this song. Lots of other artists have tried to do something like this, but most have failed, so it's nice to see one succeed. As for everything else, the song has so much energy in it it's almost unreal to me. It's definitely Three Days Grace's usual sound, but a lot better. And that plus that interesting story makes something awesome. Also, this isn't really about the song, but the music video for this is really cool and describes what's going on in the song pretty well. I embedded it above if you want to check it out. But yeah, I think I've said enough. This song is great in every way and definitely deserved to be Billboard's #1 Mainstream Rock song of 2006.
And that's it for this post! Thanks for reading, and if any of these songs sound cool to you (which I hope they do), you can listen to them with the YouTube embeds I provided with each one. So yeah, see everyone tomorrow for a cool new series!
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