Home Music

Three Days Grace – Transit Of Venus Review

Three Days Grace has brought us one of the best albums of the year, bar none, all while switching up their trademark style just enough to keep things interesting but not betraying the sound that has made them some of the greatest modern rockers.

Recommended Videos

The opposite is true for the next song, a cover of Michael Jackson’s Give In To Me from his 1991 album Dangerous which, being of such an ilk, is nothing remarkable lyrically for the band (props must go to MJ in that regard). But what was one of Jackson’s harder-hitting songs to begin with fits well with Three Days Grace’s sound and, of course, they ramp up the hook. It’s ultimately a good marriage of material and band and though no Smooth Criminal a la Alien Ant Farm, it should please fans of both artists.

The following song, Happiness also has a more unique lead-in for the band and provides quite the opposite (in terms of theme) considering the title. This happiness, as Gontier eloquently puts, is “straight from the bottle.”

The next two songs, Give Me a Reason and Time That Remains, stand as the “low point” in Transit of Venus, neither providing quite the energizing rock of the previous tracks nor the lyrical artistry. There is certainly nothing wrong with breaking up the rhythm of an album, mixing ballads with sheer rock, but these tracks are mostly forgettable in the end.

Naming a song Expectations may be a bit bold, but Three Days Grace certainly did that with track 11 of 13 and the result is a strange but ultimately excellent song that uses a back-beat that almost sounds like a twisted arcade game soundtrack. The rhythm of Expectations is stellar and though the hook is rather simplistic everything about this song rocks.

Gontier explodes right off the bat with Broken Glass, a passionate and caustic entry that is a great example of the front man’s stellar vocal range and with hard hitting guitar and base to keep everything cohesive, it’s readily apparent that Transit of Venus is not going to sink under its own weight.

Things wrap up on a slightly quieter note with Unbreakable Heart. Though that track may have been better placed in the (mild) mid-album lull, with the two songs proceeding Unbreakable Heart – making for a fantastic three-in, three-out bookend – it all adds up to a grin-inducing finale that marks a truly sensational offering from the band.

Personally, I’ve always held Three Days Grace and Finger 11 as companion bands, providing a similar sound but while existing as entirely unique (and immensely talented) entities. Finger 11 tends to include more slower-paced, ballad-style tracks in their albums but with Transit of Venus there are only two levels: rock and rockier. There would be no confusing these two bands whatsoever.

With most songs on Three Days Grace’s fourth donation to the world of North American music running under three minutes (only one track breaks the four minute mark) no songs outstay their welcome. As for the relatively compact tracks, they feel like a cheat in terms of delivering songs of a long enough duration to amp you up. Few rock albums in recent years have gone down quite as smoothly as Transit of Venus.

Fellow Canadian group Billy Talent have already unleashed their own brand of trademark rock their fans with the exceptional Dead Silence. With Transit of Venus we now have two glowing examples that some of the best rock in the world is still coming out of The Great White North.