Alienation

Album ∙ Rock ∙ 2025

Three Days Grace

In 2024, Three Days Grace surprised their fans by welcoming original vocalist Adam Gontier back into the fold. The singer had left in 2013, prompting the multiplatinum Canadian rock group to bring in Matt Walst, younger brother of bassist Brad Walst, to fill the vacant lead vocalist position. After three successful albums with Walst at the helm, Three Days Grace are back with Alienation, their first with two lead singers.

“During the pandemic, Matt and Brad were talking about the idea of me coming back,” Gontier tells Apple Music. “Brad brought it to me, and it seemed like the right time. I had a lot of life to live over the past 10 years to get to the place I’m at now, which is a good place. So the timing just seemed perfect.” As Matt Walst tells it, the transition from one lead vocalist to two was less difficult than it might seem. “It was actually pretty effortless,” he says. “We got in a room and started writing this record and it just happened so easily. It didn’t take a lot of effort to make it work.”

Lyrically, Three Days Grace returned to the theme of isolation that they’ve touched upon consistently since their 2003 debut. “The idea of feeling isolated and feeling like you’re on your own, even when you’re in a group of people, we’ve written about that a lot over the years,” Gontier says. “I think it’s something we all tend to feel at some point.” Below, he and Walst discuss each track.


“Dominate”
Matt Walst: “We have a song called ‘The Mountain’ from 2018, and it’s like a sports anthem. We wanted to write another anthem that you could play in the dressing room or work out to. We played Scotland a few years back, and between every song the crowd would chant, ‘Here we, here we, here we effing go. Here we...’ It was so cool, and I thought it’d be great to put that in a song. Finally, I had my chance.”

“Apologies”
Adam Gontier: “Our drummer Neil [Sanderson] started this one with Dan Lancaster, one of the producers of this album. Dan brought in a few different things that we wouldn’t normally do when we’re writing, and I think you can hear that on ‘Apologies.’ It’s a little bit outside the norm for us, because the verses feel a little poppier and then it’s got a pretty deep, heavy chorus. Lyrically, it’s about people around you offering to help in certain situations when you don’t necessarily feel like you deserve that help. I know I’ve been in that state quite a few times.”

“Mayday”
Walst: “‘Mayday’ is about the state of the world and how crazy and confusing it is and not knowing who’s piloting the plane. It’s like you’re on this flight and nobody’s at the wheel.”

“Kill Me Fast”
Gontier: “It’s another one we worked on with Dan Lancaster, and another one that’s outside of the norm for us. Lyrically, it’s about being in a relationship with somebody that you feel has one foot out the door but they’re still dragging you along. The song is saying, ‘If you’re going to leave, just do it and quit dragging me along for the ride.’”

“In Waves”
Gontier: “Over the last bunch of years, we’ve all lost people in our lives that we love, and ‘In Waves’ is about that. It’s about still feeling that loss around you, feeling that person around you still, and not necessarily being able to let it go—always feeling their presence or hearing their voice. It’s a pretty personal song, and it’s definitely one of my favorites on the album.”

“Alienation”
Gontier: “I feel like ‘Alienation’ is a song that could have been on our [2006] album One-X. It’s got classic Three Days Grace vibes. Lyrically, it’s that whole thing about feeling isolated and alienated that I was talking about earlier. It’s one of those things a lot of people go through and can relate to. When I first started writing music at 14 years old, I was listening to bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden and Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam, so that whole vibe, and their theme of isolation, was a big influence.”

“Never Ordinary”
Walst: “‘Never Ordinary’ is just about finding somebody and being outcasts together, always being different or outsiders, but breaking through and just being who you are no matter what the situation.”

“Deathwish”
Walst: “This is about not worrying about tomorrow and living in the moment and not really caring what happens the next day. I feel like I used to live in that world a lot in my earlier days in my music career, when I was just partying and just going all out.”
Gontier: “Yeah, we all used to do that. It’s like Matt said in an earlier interview: Probably when we were sponsored by Jägermeister. We used to just go mad without any regard for tomorrow.”

“Don’t Wanna Go Home Tonight”
Gontier: “We all really love this one. It has an older, vintage feel to it, and that was the goal. I remember driving around the small town that we lived in—Norwood, Ontario, a town of 1,500 people—driving around back roads there, just smoking joints and not caring about anything else. The song is sort of an homage to that, because we just don’t do that anymore. But those were good times, man.”

“In Cold Blood”
Gontier: It’s a song we wrote about a relationship. It usually takes two people to mess something up. You’re letting your love die together. You’re both killing it in cold blood.”

“The Power”
Gontier: “This is also a relationship song. It’s about feeling like you’re powerless because you’re so deep in the relationship and that person has so much power over you. The song is about that realization of ‘I don’t want that anymore. You have all the power, and I need to take it back.’ So it’s about getting out of that relationship to get your power back, get your freedom back.”

“Another Relapse”
Gontier: “Way back before the band was even signed, I had my issues, and I battled addiction and stuff. And it’s still a constant thing. It’s always there. So, the song is kind of self-explanatory in that way—just being aware of relapse and what it means. I was in and out of rehabs and in and out of using so many times over the years, but thankfully not anymore. Musically, this song is a little bit different too, so we thought it was a good closer for the album.”