The album “Outsider” is the second album by Three Days Grace, a Canadian rock band founded in 1992. Up until January of 2013 the band consisted of the lead singer, Adam Goutier; the bass guitarist, Brad Walst; the lead guitarist, Barry Stock; and the pianist, Neil Sanderson. However, in 2013 Adam Gontier quit the band and the other three band members replaced him the same day with Matt Walst, the younger brother of the bassist, Brad Walst, and the former lead singer of the band My Darkest Days. Since they started, Three Days Grace have made two albums– “Human” and “Outsider”– the most recent being “Outsider,” which was released on March 9th, 2018.

In this album, Three Days Grace expressed the feelings and perspectives of “outsiders,” meaning people who don’t necessarily fit in. Matt’s rage and frustration is expressed through his voice in some of the songs, such as “The Mountain”, “Me Against You”, and “Right Left Wrong”, showing his passion towards the lyrics. This passion makes the audience resonate with him because he can relate to others in similar situations. In some other songs– such as “Nothing To Lose But You,” “Love Me or Leave Me,” and “I Am An Outsider”– the tone of Matt’s voice does not represent rage nor frustration but rather isolation or neglect. These lyrics represent either a fear of being forgotten by someone close to heart or a wanting to go on a different path. This tends to be very relatable, especially among teenagers today who feel as if they don’t fit in with others around their age and don’t care what others think of them because of it. Even though it’s the tone and lyrics that particularly makes the music stand out, this album also has phenomenal instruments and beat all around. Most of the songs included in “Outsider” have very a upbeat rhythm to them and give listeners a sense of pride, or perhaps even a bit of a confidence boost, depending on the song.

With that being said, although this new album has many ups, there are also a few downs. The lyrics have a tendency to be a bit repetitive, as seen in “Love Me or Leave Me.” In this particular song, although it is liked by most, the lyrics repeat themselves 4, 5, then 6 times in a row, making them less meaningful. Unfortunately, this is not the only flaw in this new album. Along with the overly repetitive lyrics, a couple of the songs tend to lack either meaning or emotion to them, such as “Chasing the First Time.” This song starts off with a good introduction, having a similar sound to “Three Days Grace,” a song released quite a few years earlier. However, it lacks meaning. The song doesn’t go anywhere: it just repeats itself, more in plot and theme than in lyrics. Even though the repetitiveness could be an attempt to display the meaning of the song, it doesn’t make the song any more appealing.

Overall, this new album is quite a step up from Three Days Grace’s last album, “Human,” but there is definitely room for improvement. Despite this, Three Days Grace is still doing amazing things, especially with Gontier’s disappearance and the disappointment of many fans following this.