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With motifs of alienation, anger, animosity, and vengeance, Life Starts Now is a demanding album designed to help unleash the pain within. This is nothing new for Three Days Grace, whose two previous albums (Three Days Grace and One-X) all deliver similar messages of living a hard life and not being happy about it. While not much has changed in the way of songs for album number three, sometimes staying the same is a good thing.

Life Starts Now picks up right where their previous album left off. Heavy, grunge metal guitars dominate the record, setting the tone and pace for what’s to come. Bitter Taste kicks off the anger, a song about putting up with too much for too long and not wanting to deal with it anymore. It’s a tune of ultimate revenge, erasing the bitter taste from life (presumably a girl and a relationship that really soured). Bitter Taste starts the album and let’s everyone know what’s to come.

Adam Gontier’s vocals are still rough and harsh, providing the dark edge to the emo-induced songs on Life Starts Now. His scratchy throat, reminiscent of Papa Roach’s Jacoby Shaddix, bring the power to allow the listener feel the pain. The darkness surrounding his vocal chords is clear on all of the songs and help to reinforce the structures of the tracks. Life isn’t all peaches and cream, and we’d all do well to remember that. Three Days Grace is doing their best to remind us.

One song of note is World So Cold which sounds like a Hall & Oates song that was reformed and reshaped into a heavy, dark, rock track. If slowed down and sung in a higher key, Daryl Hall would be able to take this track and make it a monster hit for the power pop duo. It’s most noticeable in the chorus and makes me wonder if Three Days Grace listened to Hall & Oates when they were younger.

Songs like Break and The Good Life revisit the subject matter of doing whatever is necessary to overcome the darkness that is locked inside of everyone’s individual world. The necessity to break away and rise above from the crap that life throws at us all is well documented and accounted for. If you’re not happy with what you have and where you are in life, you need to break away and rise above with the inner strength that each of us possess.

While not breaking any new ground musically or lyrically, Three Days Grace have still delivered a solid rock record in Life Starts Now. If you’re a fan of their previous albums, then you’re going to love this one. If you’re not a fan, then you might want to stay away from Life Starts Now.

Rating: Out of 10

Track Listing:

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

Three Days Grace is:

Adam Gontier – Lead Vocals/Guitar

Neil Sanderson – Drums/Piano/Vocals

Brad Waist – bass

Barry Stock – Guitar

Reviewed by Ryo Vie