September Music Destructicon Part Two

Now how the factor could I review Skillet's new album without reviewing Three Days Grace's new album? So, the most disappointing album I've downloaded in quite a while:



I don't like debut albums, and TDG's debut album helped support this dislike. Mind you, it had I Hate Everything About You on it, but once you get bored of that song, you listen to Scared six times and the album loses all appeal. One-x, on the other hand, is one of the best albums I have ever heard. This was mainly because Barry Stock joined. Not only is Barry Stock a better guitarist than Adam Gontier, but Barry Stock's guitar playing complements Gontier's singing better then Gontier's guitar playing complements guitar's singing (strange). Gontier himself improved as a guitarist, possibly because he wasn't taking painkillers anymore, and his singing also got better overall, elevating him to best melodic singer status.

Now, having both Barry and Gontier work on the same album created for quite the zetta diverse album, but, as with all guitarists, they changed their sound slightly for this album, but in opposite directions, making this album as diverse as a Rise Against album. Gontier wasn't so sure he wanted to stick with this whole metal thing and wrote songs like Lost in You and Without You, whereas Barry went in more a slipknotian direction and wrote The Good Life.

Now, a Slipknot fan would cry just trying to imagine the lyrics to a Slipknot song called The Good Life, and rightly so. Hearing Gontier shout, "All I want is to have a good time," where Corey Taylor would shout, "WE WILL BURN YOUR CITIES DOWN!" is actually somewhat humorous. Okay, the good life was the best song on the album, but it just seems like a waste to pull a Scars on Broadway and make a good song worse for the lyrics when TDG's last album had average lyrics. The lyrics for Gontier's songs don't seem out of place, but they feel out of context on several of Stock's songs.

One problem I had with One-x is that Barry seemed to think that only including one good riff per song is acceptable, and did that on every song but Animal I Have Become. Sure, Gontier's such an amazing singer that he makes up for that, but it seems like laziness to me. Barry Stock made a step toward fixing this problem of his, and the riffs of his songs have quality outside of that intro riff they repeat after the chorus. On the other hand, Adam Gontier went in the other direction and stopped being a good singer. Factor you, Adam Gontier. In some songs, he tried his hand at non-melodic singing; a huge mistake. Other times, he simply lacks the quality of One-x.

Now, Life Starts Now is an iffy album to judge because, while memorable songs are limited, none of the songs really feel like fillers; the quality of the album is much less sporadic than your typical album. Is it better to have few good singles but not have wasted space on your album? That's up to you decide, but I'm going to classify Life Starts Now as a failure.