Maximum Metal Rating Legend
5 Excellent - Masterpiece. A classic.
4.5-4 Great - Almost perfect records but there's probably a lacking.
3.5 Good - Most of the record is good, but there may be some filler.
3 Average - Some good songs, some bad ones at about a half/half ratio.
2.5-2 Fair - Worth a listen, but best obtained by collectors.
1.5-1 Bad - Major problems with music, lyrics, production, etc.
0 Terrible - Waste of your life and time.

Note: Reviews are graded from 0-5, anything higher or not showing is from our old style. Scores, however, do not reveal the important features. The written review that accompanies the ratings is the best source of information regarding the music on our site. Reviewing is opinionated, not a qualitative science, so scores are personal to the reviewer and could reflect anything from being technically brilliant to gloriously cheesy fun.

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Band
Three Days Grace
Title
Transit Of Venus
Type
LP/EP
Company
RCA Records
YOR
2012
Style
Hard Rock
3/1/2013 - Review by: Eric Compton

Three Days Grace
Transit Of Venus

Company: RCA
Release: 2012
Genre: Hard Rock
Reviewer: EC

  • Miles better than the other mall ilk



  • Either I am just getting old or somehow yearning for days of youth. Bands like Saosin, Papa Roach and Rise Against are oddly appealing to me now more than ever. Is it the sterile production? Maybe the lack of dungeons and dragons lyrics? Either way my thirty six year old self finds this stuff rather interesting. Chalk Three Days Grace as an outline of what and what not to do if you are a modern rock band.

    Three Days Grace is miles better than the other mall ilk permeating Hot Topic. "Transit Of Venus" is the fourth record thus far and follows the same trek of commercial modern rock as previous entries. The album is produced by Don Gilmore (Linkin Park, Good Charlotte) at Revolution Studios in Toronto, a convenient choice considering the band is Canadian. This album is the first of the band's career to come by way of RCA. The previous albums were on RCA subsidiary Jive Records.

    The band has always sort of been metal by association. The guys have been on the road with the likes of Avenged Sevenfold and recently played the Mayhem tour with Bullet For My Valentine, Escape The Fate and Seether. That heavy aspect can clearly be heard on a handful of cuts here. I really love the heavier distortion on "Chalk Outline", a song with electronics galore but still aggressive like an Egypt Central or Hero The Villain. I really hear today's Papa Roach sounds on "Operate", another heavier number that builds to a rock sing along chorus. My favorite of the bunch is the intro song "Sign Of The Times, a slower track that winds up like a clock until it alarmingly kicks into full throttle.

    Not everything is so perfect though. This record has tons of filler and sappy pop songs that I just despise. "The High Road" is like something 30 Seconds To Mars would do. Same for "Time That Remains" and occasionally the lyrics drift into a nerdy Taylor Swift sort of poetic nonsense. I mean who writes "Feed off me like a vulture on a deer hit by a car"? That is really sorry songwriting in my humble opinion.

    "Transit To Venus" does a ton right but a fair fourth that is just utter nonsense. I wish the band would just commit to an album of solid and intense cuts. I guess a batch of fifteen solid cuts can be culled from the band's discography. That isn't a bad deal considering this is a Billboard band from Canada and I am still play listing these guys even with the plethora of metal at hand.


    • 1 :REVIEW COUNT
      3 :AVE RATING

    ALL REVIEWS FOR: THREE DAYS GRACE
    TITLE
    DOR
    COMPANY
    REVIEWER DATE MADE RATING
    Transit Of Venus
    2012
    RCA Records
    Eric Compton3/1/2013
    3

    ALL INTERVIEWS FOR: THREE DAYS GRACE
    INTERVIEW INTERVIEWER DATE TAGLINE


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