Three Days Grace (album)

Three Days Grace is the debut studio album by Canadian rock band Three Days Grace, released on July 22, 2003, through Jive Records. It was the band's only album as a trio, and also under Bertelsmann Music Group.

Background and writing
Prior to being named Three Days Grace, the band was known as Groundswell. Three Days Grace garnered the attention of many record labels after the release of their demo, largely due to the song, "I Hate Everything About You". Eventually, Three Days Grace signed with Jive and began recording their debut album in Massachusetts. The single "I Hate Everything About You" was released in promotion for the album.

According to drummer Neil Sanderson, the album's material comes from the "crazy things" the group had seen growing up. Singer Adam Gontier stated, "I don't find it easy to write about happy shit. You don't need a release when you're happy." The group completed half of the album at Long View Farm in North Brookfield, Massachusetts, while the rest was done at Bearsville Studios in Bearsville, New York. The album's theme deals with "growing up in a small town, being bullied around and everybody knowing your business."

The band began touring with Trapt in July 2003 in support of the album. During this tour, the group added a new member, guitarist Barry Stock, who joined the band after they held auditions for another guitarist. The group later joined Nickelback on The Long Road Tour throughout October and November 2003. The band embarked on a headlining tour called the Three Days Grace World Tour in 2004. They also supported Evanescence on a North American tour in July 2004 and Hoobastank on the Let it Out Tour in November 2004. In October 2004, the band re-released their debut album with a bonus DVD that contained, music videos of their singles, behind the scenes videos, backstage footage and concert clips shot in Brazil.

Composition
The group spent roughly six months to record the album, while the songs on the record were written over the course of ten years. On "I Hate Everything About You", the band recorded two guitar parts for the song, the main guitar part and intro riff. The opening riff was recorded on a Yamaha acoustic through an Amp Farm and the group liked the way it sounded with the acoustic guitar and ended up using it on the final production. On the fourth track, "Home", the band was coming up with different ideas and lead parts "that might sound cool," according to Gontier. They eventually recorded a high-pitch guitar lead that can be heard at the beginning of the song. They used a whammy pedal to "bring the whole tone up a whole octave," which was played around the 12th fret. On the album's lead track, "Burn", the band was in the studio and started "dumping a jar of pennies on a guitar," according to Sanderson. They added some distortion which sounded like fire and the band thought it fit the title of the track really well.

Critical reception
The album was met with positive reviews from most music critics. Heather Phares of AllMusic gave the album a positive review, saying, "Although this debut is a little uneven, it's also promising. Three Days Grace are definitely one of the most accessible alt-metal bands of the 2000s; they just need to add some more distinctiveness to their sound." She praised the group's songwriting on tracks such as "Born Like This", "Just Like You", and "Scared". She also called the album's lead single, "I Hate Everything About You", the band's "best song, gaining most of its power from its directness and bluntness in examining a dysfunctional relationship."

Dave Doray of IGN gave another positive review, remarking, "almost every single song from the Three Days Grace track list is heavy and catchy, with chewy chunks of assurance and fury thrown in for added measure." Kaj Roth of Melodic stated, "Three Days Grace plays tough modern rock, standing on classic hard rock ground like a mix between Depswa and Shinedown." He complimented the song "Scared" for its guitar harmonies calling it, "real refreshing." However he was critical on the tracks, "Burn" and "Now or Never" for the lack of "good melodies." Spin gave a more negative review calling the album, "generic Canadian gripe rock."

On the 20th anniversary of the album, Issy Herring of Distorted Sound gave a positive review for the album. She praised the album's lead single, "I Hate Everything About You" stating, "The lyrics are timelessly relatable [...] with all of us undeniably experiencing a toxic relationship at some point in our personal lives." She also praised the album's elevnth track, "Take Me Under" remarking, "The nu-metal/grunge inspired guitar melodies make the track even more sensational and somewhat sentimental to any 90s kid growing up listening to this absolute masterpiece." However she was critical on the tracks "Overrated" and "Born Like This" for its underwhelming chorus. She ended off noting, "the release may be dotted with slight disappointments, but there is no doubt that the highlights triumph the rest."

Commercial performance
Three Days Grace debuted at No. 194 on the Billboard 200 and in its first week, the album sold no more than 34,000 copies. The album later peaked at No. 69 on the Billboard 200 in 2004 and sold 356,000 copies that year. In 2006, the album sold over 1.2 million copies in the US. As of June 2007, the album sold more than 1.5 million copies. The album also entered the Canadian Albums Chart at No. 9 and sold 5,000 copies in its first week. According to the Nielsen SoundScan, the album has since sold over 335,000 units in Canada.

Accolades
The album has been certified platinum in Canada and 2× Platinum in the US. The album earned them a CASBY Award for Favourite New Artist in 2003. The lead single "I Hate Everything About You" was nominated for Best Rock Video and Favourite Canadian Group at the 2004 MuchMusic Video Awards. Producer Gavin Brown won Producer of the Year for the song at the 2004 Juno Awards. The song also peaked at number one on the Canadian rock chart becoming their first number-one hit in the country. The album's second single, "Just Like You" became the first of many of the band's songs to top the US Billboard Alternative Airplay and Mainstream Rock charts.

Personnel
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.


 * Three Days Grace
 * Adam Gontier – lead vocals, guitars
 * Brad Walst – bass guitar
 * Neil Sanderson – drums, backing vocals


 * Artwork
 * Nick Gamma – art direction, design
 * Jeff Faerber – illustrations
 * Chapman Baehler – photography
 * Diane Schmidtke – groomer
 * Mandi Line – stylist


 * Management
 * Mark Adelman – management for Spivak Sobol Entertainment
 * Stu Sobol – management for Spivak Sobol Entertainment


 * Production
 * Gavin "Golden" Brown – producer
 * George Marino – mastering
 * Ted Jensen – mastering on "I Hate Everything About You" and "Just Like You"
 * Michael "Elvis" Baskette – engineer
 * Krisjan Leslie – engineer
 * Jay Baumgardner – mixing
 * Rich Costey – mixing on "Just Like You" and "I Hate Everything About You"
 * Randy Staub – mixing on "Burn", "Home" and "Let You Down"
 * Dave Holdredge – editing
 * Mark Kiczula – assistant engineer
 * Mike Lapierre – assistant engineer
 * Darren Mora – assistant engineer
 * Damien Shannon – assistant engineer
 * Alley Trela – assistant engineer
 * German Villacorta – assistant engineer