Three Days Grace

In the early 2000s, the mainstream hard-rock landscape was teeming with the sounds of arena-ready post-grunge acts in the Nickelback mould and the more aggro, stylised pummel of nu-metal. So the arrival of Three Days Grace’s 2003 self-titled debut was perfectly timed to unite these factions. Formed in the small southern Ontario town of Norwood, Three Days Grace became modern-rock-radio mainstays on both sides of the Canada/US border by combining steamroller riffs with angst-ridden, shout-along hooks that doubled as a form of primal-scream therapy. But on signature, spite-fueled ragers like “I Hate Everything About You” and “Just Like You”, they point the finger at themselves as much as their subjects, homing in on the messy, mutually destructive nature of codependent relationships. The band would continue to tap that vulnerable vein on later songs like “Animal I Have Become”, an unflinching account of someone battling an OxyContin addiction. Under the stewardship of former My Darkest Days singer Matt Walst, Three Days Grace scored their 14th No. 1 single on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Songs chart with 2018’s “Infra-Red”, surpassing a record previously held by Van Halen. In 2022, they released their seventh album, EXPLOSIONS.