Three Days Grace Biography and Profile

band photo of Three Days Grace

Three Days Grace

Three Days Grace is a hard rock band from Canada who has had great success on the charts thanks to a series of high-impact singles that merge melodic vocals with snarling guitars. Though loosely classified as alt-metal because of their songs’ menacing atmosphere, Three Days Grace have more accurately positioned themselves as radio-ready rockers with an edge often lacking in their polished peers.

Three Days Grace Origins

Three Days Grace started out in the early ‘90s when the band members were still in high school in rural Ontario. The current lineup didn’t solidify for several years, but even in its earliest days, the band consisted of a core trio: frontman Adam Gontier, drummer Neil Sanderson, and bassist Brad Walst. The band initially went by the name Groundswell before changing it to Three Days Grace in the late ‘90s.

Balancing Emotion and Accessibility on Their Debut

Three Days Grace’s first album hit stores in 2003. The self-titled release drew comparisons to Helmet and Tool, but unlike those bands Three Days Grace were clearly gearing their tunes to rock-radio audiences, finding an artful balance of mainstream accessibility and raw emotion. Three Days Grace generated several singles, and the album went platinum. The slick production and somewhat familiar song structure didn’t impress critics, but Three Days Grace’s taut tunes were enormously popular on alternative and mainstream rock stations.

Getting Dark

Three Days Grace returned in 2006 with One-X. Working with celebrated hitmaker Howard Benson behind the boards and adding lead guitarist Barry Stock to the lineup, Three Days Grace didn’t radically alter their formula for One-X, but the dark, ugly lyrics had a well-worn authenticity to them that gave the album a freshness that was lacking a bit on Three Days Grace. The darker themes didn’t scare away fans – One-X went platinum and three of its singles went gold.

Life Starts Now

Three Days Grace released their third album, Life Starts Now, on September 22, 2009. The first single was the Nickelback-like rocker “Break.”

New Lead Singer and Human album

In early 2013, Three Days Grace lead singer Adam Gontier resigned from the band due to a "non-life-threatening" health issue. Gontier was replaced by My Darkest Days frontman Matt Walst (brother of bassist Brad Walst) for a scheduled 2013 tour with Shinedown and P.O.D. In 2015, Gontier revealed that he also left due to musical differences and formed the band Saint Asonia with Staind guitarist Mike Mushok.

Three Days Grace released "Painkiller," their first single with Matt Walst on vocals, on April 8, 2014. The song became the band's eleventh No. 1 single on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart. On March 31, 2015, Three Days Grace released their fifth studio album Human.

Three Days Grace Lineup

  • Matt Walst: lead vocals
  • Neil Sanderson: drums, vocals
  • Barry Stock: guitar
  • Brad Walst: bass, vocals
  • Adam Gontier (former member): lead vocals, guitar

Essential Three Days Grace Songs

  • "I Hate Everything About You"
  • "Just Like You"
  • "Pain"
  • "Animal I Have Become"
  • "Never Too Late"                                                
  • "Painkiller" 

Three Days Grace Discography

  • Three Days Grace (2003)
  • One-X (2006)
  • Life Starts Now (2009)
  • Transit of Venus (2012)
  • Human (2015) 

Three Days Grace Quotes

Adam Gontier, on growing up in the small town of Norwood, Ontario:

"In Norwood, you basically had three options: sports, drugs or music. We stuck with music and used it as an outlet. Our anger derives from seeing what happens to people in a small town." (Rolling Stone, January 14, 2004)

Adam Gontier, explaining the meaning of the name Three Days Grace:

"It sort of stands for the sense of urgency. Time to pay a debt. If you had three days to change something in your life or if wanted to change something in your life could you do it in three days?" (Florida Entertainment Scene, 2004)

Neil Sanderson, describing Three Days Grace's live shows:

"We go up onstage and it's full on. It's like we own the stage. We give it full on. So when we come off the stage we feel relieved and pretty chilled." (IGN, December 9, 2003)

Three Days Grace Trivia

  • To create the sound of a raging fire for the opening of "Burn," Three Days Grace dropped a jar of pennies onto an electric guitar.
  • Three Days Grace contains material written over a span of 10 years.
  • Three Days Grace have toured with Nickelback, Hoobastank, and Staind.

(Edited by Bob Schallau)