Three Days Grace's Engine of Angst Purrs Like a Discombobulated Kitten

Three Days Grace gets big ups for consistency. If there's angst to be mined from any situation you can name, the guys are there with suction hoses blazing. Turning to their discography, you notice "I Hate Everything About You" and "Pain" channel the madness of a tormented man. This is the type of guy you wouldn't be comfortable sitting next to on the city bus. If those songs were compared to a bodily sensation I'd say they resemble the raw unsettled discomfort of a sore throat. Swallowing feels like you're clamping down on razor blades. How Three Days Grace works that lather into a smashing hard rock gut punch boggles this plebe's mind. I'm glad they hold a unique corner of that market though. "I Am Machine" continues along that nerve endings cut to the bone rough edge. The chorus vocal is one of the top five most lingering of any song in any genre. In no small measure the credit goes to tour vocalist/recently anointed new lead vocalist Matt Walst. You can tell demons swarm throughout his brain pan. Barry Stock digs the nails in deeper with guitar playing that jabs the angst in as far as it can go. The chord swerving takes center stage at the most appropriate time. This activity mirrors Matt's torment. Matt writhes and Barry's ax follows in his ominous footsteps. Matt gets introspective in Halloween fitting fashion. He respects bleeding because at least then we know we're feeling something. To those out there shackled by soul sucking wage slavery how does the mentality of lacking the wisdom to know what's it's like to care enough to carry on grab you? You're numb not because the sentiment appeals but it's the only crouch motivated survival mode you have that works with any regularity. Drummer Neil Sanderson gets top distance on his drum beats. Nothing gets the hurried treatment. Neil drives slowly over Matt's anguish, backs up, then plows over it again. "Pain" did glorify the thought that it's better to feel pain than absolutely nothing. That song was also eerier than "I Am Machine" which unflinchingly snarls at you and your stabs at pity. Matt apparently either didn't care to study notes from Three Days Grace's past cranial explorations to verify the whole pain is preferable to nothing or opted to give that subject a demented spit shine. Either way there's no dissing the deliberate private prison assembled by the foursome. The second half of the chorus pushes its way up the windpipe, a spew on the brink of shooting skyward (apologies if you're eating, preparing a meal, or thinking about where to go for dinner). I can't do that harshness of timbre justice. It sounds like a guy begging for someone to take the hangman's noose away from him before he does irreparable damage. Moral quandaries are part and parcel with music. Out of place? Three Days Grace. Trapped by life's vicissitudes? So is Three Days Grace. Their new machine fires on all cylinders. It's the furthest thing from a smooth ride but the facade melting zing it brings to the table easily makes up for the bumps and bruises we absorb in transit.