Album Review: Three Days Grace - Transit Of Venus

Wow, some mothers do 'ave 'em, eh? When Toronto foursome Three Days Grace jumped on the alt.metal bandwagon in the early-noughties, they slid in perfectly alongside their brethren, with songs like I Hate Everything About You quite succinctly, if not expertly, nailing the pre-emo sentiments of the post-nu and alt.metal-devouring youth. Failing to experience those initial highs that inevitably came before their following two albums, we now find ourselves at the mercy of Transit Of Venus, their fourth studio album, chock-full of thankless production, obliterated guitars and a vocalist in need of a hug.

Firstly, (and it's a cheap dig at aesthetics, but all part of the big picture) one only has to have a gander at the sleeve notes for the first sign of trouble. Surely it's not necessary to have three band portraits in one booklet, especially when they're practically all the same shot. Then there's singer Adam Gontier, ironically now on hiatus. The dude can sing, not jaw-dropping stuff but it does the job. With that on his side, why then, would he proceed with lyrics like this from Broken Glass: “All we are is broken glass/Thrown on the floor/We weren't meant to last/All we are is empty shelves/Try to pick us up you might cut yourself”. What? That don't make no sense, but pretty sure we can cut ourselves just fine after listening to this, cheers.

If this were Snog, Marry, Avoid, a not so subtle hint would be to avoid this at all costs. You'll only damage your hearing and waste vital brain cells. And if you do indeed watch the aforementioned reality show, congratulations are in order for reading thus far.