Three Days Grace are my favourite childhood band, but lesbihonest: it's too fucking hard to love them to the same degree as my ten-year-old self did. This latest endeavour of theirs, titled Transit of Venus, started out promising. (Despite the cheesy "never again in your life time" slogan.) They stated that it'd be edgier, more aggressive, experimental. But the artwork looks like a Photoshop mishap, a dupe of Cage the Elephant's Thank You Happy Birthday gone awry. While a fun, indie rock group can get away with it, the above just isn't a convincing sell; it's the wrong sort of album art for a post-grunge, hard-ish rock album.
The first single, "Chalk Outline" is okay. Clever lyrics have never been one of the band's strengths, but at least it's catchy. On first listen, the chorus melody sounded like something I--an amateur wannabe--had improvised in the past. (I'm not kidding, it was so familiar to myself.) But because I insisted upon loving them still, I returned to the song a few days later and replayed it a couple times. Initial thoughts aside, the riffs are raunchier, and the stops in the bridge are great and unexpected. Props to Neil for the rhythmic variety, the only thing about this track keeping my attention.
The release is set for October 2nd, and until then, I'll probably forget about it. But when it is out, I'll probably give Three Days Grace another shot.