Though he left the band a decade ago after their album Transit Of Venus, the spectre of Adam Gontier and Three Days Grace remain intertwined. Gontier has, after all, rejoined Three Days Grace for the occasional song during a live performance (it’s happened multiple times this year, including earlier in 2023), despite being busy with Saint Asonia. The fan reaction to these appearances has, quite obviously, been a raucous one. While they’ve been very successful with vocalist Matt Walst since, there’s a growing suspicion that something big might be happening in the TDG camp.
Given these reunions with Three Days Grace recently, you can’t help but wonder if something else is waiting in the wings. Something like Adam Gontier reuniting with the band on a permanent or occasional basis. There’s a few reasons to believe this could actually happen.
One, there’s the matter of the fan reception to Gontier. It has been, in a word, huge. You need only watch the above video for proof of this, and that says more than enough.
Two, the obvious nostalgia factor. Three Days Grace was the soundtrack to many, many teenagers and young adults upon their 2003 debut album release. Given their continuing success after that, and the fact that their music has always touched on familiar themes of alienation and difficult relationships, as well standing up for yourself and overcoming adversity, it’s not a surprise as to why continuing fans of Three Days Grace would be drawn to the voice that narrated part of their lives – a la Chester Bennington, Dustin Kensrue, etc.
Three, we’ve already seen, to an extent, what a vocalist split could look like in a popular rock or metal band. Killswitch Engage is a great example of this. While former vocalist Howard Jones never officially rejoined the band after his departure a decade ago, he did rejoin KSE for the song “The Signal Fire”. Again, the reception to just that ended up being one of their most successful songs to date.
All of this is to say that a lot of factors would make more than the occasional show featuring Gontier, make a lot of sense. Perhaps a feasible idea would be to have Adam Gontier rejoin Three Days Grace, but also team up with Matt Walst on new songs, as well as tour together and do some sort of split as well as collaboration. Given Walst’s continuing success with Three Days Grace and vice versa, it seems extremely unlikely he wouldn’t be a part of the band. In fact, him leaving is essentially an impossibility, barring something unforeseen or surprising. Even a song or tour with both vocalists would make the band a lot of money, but also please their entire fanbase – so only time will tell whether it happens or not. And even if it doesn’t, and Gontier is only an occasional guest appearance at Three Days Grace shows, there’s no doubt that there will be fond memories of his performances on the first four records from the band.
