THREE DAYS GRACE

Outsider

MuSIC FOR NATIONS

Canada’s self-confessed outcasts get stuck in the middle ground

Outsider is more than just an album title: it’s a mission statement. “We do our own thing, and we’re comfortable doing it. We have always looked forward, not backward,” says vocalist Brad Walst. It’s a shame, then, that there’s nothing particularly forward-looking about the record, although musically, it isn’t badly executed. Sitting somewhere between Nickelback and latter-career Disturbed’s bynumbers stadium fillers, Outsider labours its point with lyrics that have about as much depth as a birdbath. The phrases could be interchangeable between songs: ‘I don’t know where I’m going but I just keep moving on’; ‘Even when I feel like dying / Keep climbing the mountain’; ‘I’m living in strange days’ – we get the point, because it’s about as subtle as a bulldozer. The Mountain and Villain I’m Not are fun singalongs, but there’s nothing beneath the surface to be scratched.

FOR FANS OF: WE CAME AS ROMANS, NICKELBACK, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE

THEA DE GALLIER