ALBUM REVIEW: THREE DAYS GRACE - ALIENATION (22/08/25)
Alienation out 22 August via RCA Records
With their most recent release, Three Days Grace remind us why they’ve been hailed as one of the major rock bands of our generation for almost three decades. Alienation is a mix of nostalgic heavy rock sounds mixed with softer yet equally powerful moments of reflection, exploring themes of isolation, heartbreak and the anxiety that both cause as human experiences that divide and unite us all at the same time.
The first track, ‘Dominate’, also released as a single, aptly opens the record with the band laughing together as they welcome back original frontman Adam Gontier, who joins Matt Walst on vocals, with Barry Stock on guitars, Brad Walst on bass and Neil Sanderson on drums and keyboard, completing the formation.
The energy of this opener sets the intention of the album clearly: “nothing more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose - I will dominate through the pain”, the phrasing of the last sentence possibly even a nod to one of their earliest and most beloved tracks, ‘Pain’ off their 2006 record One-X.
‘Apologies’ introduces more somber lyrics, as it starts exploring the subject of self reflection and dark mental spaces, describing how no help from any loved ones or typical numbing methods - “Caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines” - can ever truly help.
This same path of desperation and hopelessness continues in ‘Mayday’, the first single released off this record, and the first time fans got to hear the powerhouse of Gontier and Walst’s voice merging together. The chorus’ murky point of view - “it’s hard to keep fighting when you’re barely surviving” - is somewhat redeemed this time, as the two singers promise in the outro “we’re still alive, we’ll never say Mayday”
‘Kill Me Fast’ is the first emotional ballad of the tracklist, with subtler sounds that introduce the recurring themes of uncertainty that come from not knowing where you stand in a relationship that seems doomed to end. The chorus explodes as a burst of emotions, begging for sincerity, to be let out of this moment of excruciating uncertainty.
This uncertainty lingers in ‘In Waves’, where the band keeps exploring the feeling of not being able to reach or even save someone you love anymore, whilst also being unable to completely let go. The lyrics evoke images of being shaken around by an untamable force, culminating in an inevitable emotional shipwreck.
At the halfway mark, the title track hits us with a stronger rock punch, accompanied by the scifi-esque production of the intro and verse that circle back to the concept of ‘Alienation’, conveying the themes of isolation, feeling different and separated from everything and everyone around us, to the point of feeling almost inhuman.
“Isolated, complicated, will we find a way to make it out alive?” the 7th track, ‘Never Ordinary’, slows things down but reminisces on these same feelings of otherness, but shedding an unexpected positive light on the idea of feeling different with the opening line, repeat in the chorus - “in the darkest night, you were born to shine” - suggesting that those same experiences that make us feel so disconnected from the world may be be the very ones that helps us find our way, especially when shared.
The ideas of feeling isolated in one’s own emotions and being stuck at the end of a doomed relationship merge together in the consequent tracks, with ‘Deathwish’ exploring themes of self destruction as well with lines like “there’s no future there’s no past”, the chorus “living life like a deathwish, born to be a bit reckless” and a threatening bridge, complete with guitar solo, warning to “be careful what you wish for”.
‘Don’t Wanna Go Home Tonight’ brings us back to a rock ballad, reminiscing about the chaos of the past and allure of seizing the day, escaping from reality and one own feelings, but ultimately facing the inevitability of moving forward “i’m lucky i’m not dead after hanging around you”. themes of seizing the day, escaping from reality and your feelings “i dont wanna go home tonight” - “for the comfort we gained, it’s the chaos we lose”.
‘Cold Blood’ is pure hard rock anger as it leans even more into themes of death, silence and violence with images of bullet wounds, knives, bruises. “No release, no agreement, no attempt to stop the bleeding, said forever, didn’t mean it”. Physical hurt representing once again emotional pain and loneliness.
The closing tracks fittingly sum up the motifs of the entire record, with ‘The Power’ being a strong anthem for taking back one’s life in our own hands, "I've been dying for you, i just can’t love you anymore, i’m taking back the power”.
”I kind of miss the kiss of the fire, cause nothing ever got me higher than knowing i could fall”, in ‘Another Relapse’ the band reflects on the charms and the power that the bad things we can’t help but love seem to have over us, be it through a wrong relationship, addiction or any other mean. “You make me go from bad to worse to extreme” - “you don't know how much i miss the feeling, maybe just a little taste wont kill me”.
And so ends our raw journey of self reflection, heavy instrumentals and heavier emotional trauma, as we are left to wonder if we will ever defeat this seemingly self fulfilling prophecy or self destruction as the song and album slowly fade away.