Life Starts Now

iTunes Review

When a band is playing for the same-sized crowd that comes out to see a football game, they really have to bring it, and Three Days Grace’s third album does just that, reassuring fans and newcomers that the alt-metal quartet was born for the big stage. Similarly to 2006’s One-X, 2009's Life Starts Now is heavily inspired by singer Adam Gontier’s inner demons. “Bitter Taste” fires up the album with raw and meaty guitar riffs that hammer down like ‘70s hard rock before the song shape-shifts into a post-grunge rail against the sour remnants left behind by a toxic, back-stabbing, anti-muse. The behemoth sized “Break” follows with similarly themed lyrics that poignantly express what it feels like to be at your wit’s end. But like the album’s title and sleeve art suggest, some positive insight rises from the ashes of all this burning catharsis — especially on the anthemic chorus which punches new life into that age-old “rise above” adage. The melodic “No More” brings the light at the end of the tunnel out into the open with some soaring harmonies, Edge-inspired guitar chimes, and honestly hopeful lyrics.