Leaders of Alternative rock

There exist a very special type of bands, which become extremely popular right after release of their first record. In particular, American alternative act 3 Doors Down can be fearlessly related to them. Of course, in the beginning they also had to knock about tiny venues just like any other young band but their first album changed this situation radically. To be more precise, it wasn't the album but their super hit called Kryptonite under the strength of which the album went on to go six times platinum. The subsequent releases, however, failed to achieve the same level but as a matter of fact they sounded equally strong and used to sell millions of copies either. Thus, for the last eight years 3 Doors Down gathered a whole army of devoted fans and gained a stable reputation of seasoned rock stars. However, in the sense of creative potential 3 Doors Down experience something like a permanent, slow-moving recession. Every new album of the band always meets a little bit lower response. Everybody call it a good and worthy attempt but always mention that their previous record still sounded better. It is not hard to guess that their recent album was the least popular.

3 Doors Down try to widen their sonic palette

From this perspective all the suppositions about their new album seem to be a little bit opposite. You know that it really can be a stunning record but on the other hand you fully understand that it may follow the aforementioned tradition. In reality the album doesn't correspond to neither of hypotheses. That is – the album is definitely none the worse than its predecessor but you cannot call it their best record too. Yet, the first part sounds really promising. The album starts with a bright and pretty heavy song called Train. Even despite it sounds quite typically for 3 Doors Down you cannot but notice that they tried to widen their usual sonic palette on it. Train is the band's attempt to make a cheerful, bluesy driven song. The result turned out to be not as fun as it was supposed to but it looks as a sufficiently good try for the band, which usually enshrouds every song in a melancholic aura. The song is followed by a very strong composition CitizenSoldier, which is also marked with tiny but still new for 3 Doors Down elements.

3 Doors Down stay devoted to their brand sound

Actually, this is where the originality ends. The third song It's Not My Time is produced in a typical for 3 Doors Down vein. The song features a little bit sad acoustic intro, mid tempo beat and a chorus, which could be performed by Nickelback. However, the song as such produces a very positive impression and fully justifies its status of the album's first single. Unfortunately, further on the band prefers to stick to their traditional alternative rock routine, which consists mostly of unvaried songs. It's not that these songs are bad, but you cannot say that this is a hit producing material; this is simply pleasant background music, no more than that. Still, sometimes the band collects its strength and gives out quite interesting things. Runaway, for instance, is a really good continuation of the idea started by the first three tracks. This song looks really bright in comparison with the rest of the material. A song called Give It To Me is worth of mentioning too. In the end, the overall summary may be as follows. 3 Doors Down is not an album, which will shock you neither in a good nor in a bad sense. It features a number of really great, first-class songs but for the most part the band performs the same filling material, which can be heard on any of their previous albums. It is professionally produced, it is pleasant to listen but the lot of these songs is to be played somewhere in Wendy's or Wall Mart, which is actually not that bad too.

Leo Chevsky
27.05.2008