Previous Diagnoses:
Paradise Lost|Primus|Faith No More|Paramore|HEALTH|Dir En Grey|Mc Ren|Black Light Burns|Shellac
Band/Artist: Nickelback
Origins: Hanna, Alberta, Canada
Founded: 1995
Members:
Current members:
Chad Kroeger – lead vocals, lead guitar (1995–present)
Ryan Peake – rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (1995–present)
Mike Kroeger – bass (1995–present)
Daniel Adair – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2005–present)
Former members:
Brandon Kroeger – drums (1995–1997)
Mitch Guindon – drums (1997–1998)
Ryan Vikedal – drums, percussion (1998–2005)
Studio albums: 10
Active: Yes
Are Nickelback the Kings of buttrock?
For this edition of the Doctor’s Diagnosis series, I thought I’d give things a little shake up and throw myself out of the comfort zone. Thus far, the artists I’ve covered are both well-respected in their respective fields, and they only have a couple of blunders at worst in their back pocket. With that in mind, I felt it was time to tackle a genre I’m not particularly thrilled about and double down still on a band I have relative ambivalence for. Why? Well Nickelback are a curious case, gaining momentum with their third album Silver Side Up and peaking mainstream success with All the Right Reasons, albeit quickly garnering an ire so intense it became a cultural movement. Was the hatred warranted? That’s what the Doctor is here to find out – so, Nickelback, it’s time to spread ‘em so I can see what you’ve got going on.
Curb (1996)
The Doctor’s rating: 2/5
Analysis: As I said in the introduction; I’ve never really had an opinion on Nickelback, though I wouldn’t say my overall view on them is particularly positive. A lot of their albums I’ve never even heard before today and their debut album, Curb, is one of them. After listening to it, the only takeaway I have from it is that it’s humdrum, dime-a-dozen American hard rock, and I immediately forgot about it after finishing it. There’s absolutely nothing memorable on here, and while it’s not objectively poor or badly executed, it’s still your typical, derivative radio-rock trash that was around in the truck loads during this period. It’s almost offensive how bland Curb is, and impressive how it manages to be completely insipid in execution. Suffice to say, this album feels like you’re dragging a boulder up a steep hill, desperately trying to get to the top so it can all be over.
Prescription: Lacking in all redeeming personality. I can’t prescribe you anything for this. Just avoid it and listen to something else instead.
The State (1999)
The Doctor’s rating: 2.2/5
Analysis: A slight improvement on the eye-wateringly dull debut. The songwriting is a little snappier and more concise, but like Curb, The State still suffers from the same pitfalls as its predecessor. Conformist American hard rock without a distinguished bone in its body. There are glimmers of the Silver Side Up ’s success on here – namely in Chad’s marginally more interesting vocal performances, which exhume a semblance of confidence this time round – but nevertheless, I wouldn’t recommend checking this out. Post-grunge hard rock has a sound so ridged, myopic and derivative – a pool of creativity so shallow it ended up cannibalising itself pretty quickly – it’s hard to be too harsh on The State, as it will have sounded somewhat fresh at the time. However, the year is 2024, making The State’s triteness almost unbearable.
Prescription: An inchmeal improvement in some areas, and the songwriting is a little tighter, but overall, another record to throw on the landfill. I can’t prescribe you anything for this. Just avoid it and listen to something else instead.
Silver Side Up (2001)
The Doctor’s rating: 3/5
Analysis: While the band’s third studio album is far from being a cutting-edge masterpiece, it is still a marked improvement so significant, it makes you wonder whether Nickelback sacrificed a brace of goats to the Devil himself to improve their writing chops for Silver Side Up. The end results are for the most part fine; the songs are punchier and more effective, heavier, and more importantly for this type of music, catchier. “Never Again”, “How You Remind Me” and “Too Bad” are undeniable in their execution and do a pretty darn good job at meeting the above criteria. Unfortunately, the aforementioned tracks are the clear highlights from the album. The rest of the tracks fall into the same traps previous albums fell into – though, credit where it’s due, the dull numbers on here have a firmer imprint on their own sound, making Silver Side Up a good ol’ slab of throwaway fun.
Prescription: It doesn’t set the world on fire, and has some pretty cringe lyrics on it, but at the very least it’s fun to go through, which is more than can be said about the previous two efforts. Jam once and see how you get on.
The Long Road (2003)
The Doctor’s rating: 3/5
Analysis: Another decent entry for the band. Surprisingly, The Long Road sets off strong in terms of the band knowing what works for them – Chad has certainly learned a thing or two since Silver Side Up, offering up a load of pop-y, catchy hooks over the hard rock grooves. It’s only by the halfway mark where it starts to flounder and fall on old habits. I’d say I enjoyed this a little bit more than Silver Side Up, just because it has better songwriting and, despite being a hair longer in length, feels a lot easier to run through.
Prescription: A solid album with their best songwriting so far. Jam once and see how you get on.
All the Right Reasons (2005)
The Doctor’s rating: 3.5/5
Analysis: At the time, “Photograph” and “Rockstar” – particularly the latter – were on every radio station and music channel known to humanity, and I loathed every single time they came on. At the time I wasn’t afforded the time or luxury to appreciate them – one, because they were shovelled down my throat against my will and two, I had my NU-metal street credit to uphold. Hearing them nearly twenty years later it’s easy to understand why they were such huge hits. By this point, the band had refined their songwriting abilities to an effective standard, and whether you like the band or not, it’s hard to deny their talents and capabilities at writing catchy pop-rock tunes, which, frankly, the album is laced with. Yet, the biggest surprise here comes from the instrumental proficiency within the band – with All the Right Reasons focusing on displaying that talent as much as giving you a solid earworm melody. With Chad now fully comfortable with his vocals, all of the acoustic guitar passages, and branching out on more intricate instrumental work, All the Right Reasons feels like the band have their own identity firmly in hand. I have to give Nickelback their dues: this album is really good. They’ve broken away from their old habits of writing vapid hard rock songs with little distinction and crafted an album that highlights their strengths.
Prescription: So far, this is hands down their strongest offering in the catalogue. It doesn’t meander and the band completely understand their strengths and utilise them to the full on here. Jam 2-3 times a day for a week and see how you get on.
Dark Horse (2008)
The Doctor’s rating: 3/5
Analysis: Okay, so Nickelback won me over with All the Right Reasons. It’s not a timeless classic that’s going to be talked about and studied for centuries to come, but it is a surprisingly well-made hard rock record with an omnipotent supply of memorable pop hooks. Dark Horse takes the same formula and retains the sugary pop sensibilities from that record, only it opts to implement a heavier focus on Pantera-style grooves into the mix. The end result isn’t as successful as last time, but songs like “Burn It to the Ground”, “Just to Get High”, “I’d Come for You” and “If Today Was Your Last Day” transfer the successful method from last time but adds a slightly harder edge into the recipe to keep things somewhat fresh.
Prescription: A step back from their 2005 album, but it manages to embrace what made that album such a success. Jam once and see how you get on.
Here and Now (2011)
The Doctor’s rating: 2/5
Analysis: At this point in their career, it’s clear Nickelback have ran out of ideas to keep things fresh. Here and Now continues Dark Horse’s mantra of moving things forward by making songs “heavier”, the only problem is that this time round the catchy stuff doesn’t hit where it should. What we have here is a selection of derivative-at-best instrumentals and Kroger’s gross lyric writing and overall vocal arrangements leaving a lot to be desired. I haven’t touched on this yet, but Chad Kroeger is a creepy pervert. His lyrics in previous albums kept his degenerate deviancy in the shadows, where he stalks unsuspecting women, but nevertheless, it was still very much there. The difference is that it was masked behind better songwriting – here, the music is average and so I gravitated (to my detriment) towards Chad’s lyrics, and oh boy. It’s bad enough the dude looks like a creep to begin with, but hearing him say “she’s gonna lick my pistol clean” made me burst out laughing in a fit of cringe. I’m no prude, but goddamn, there’s just something slimy about the way it’s presented in these songs. Outside of that though, Here and Now is a drastic step backwards and really supplants the momentum they had going.
Prescription: Cringe-inducing lyrics aside, the music is soporific and regresses back to a sound more akin to their earlier days, only…. sleazier. I can’t prescribe you anything for this. Just avoid it and listen to something else instead.
No Fixed Address (2014)
The Doctor’s rating: 1.5/5
Analysis: Everyone is entitled to voice their opinion on things, but one thing that irks every fibre of my being is hearing a band with a multi-million-pound net worth vapidly and condescendingly spewing empty platitudes of “revolution”, and keeping things as vague as possible while they do it. “Edge of a Revolution” is just one of many reasons why this album can go fuck itself, but to summarise No Fixed Address; it’s an incoherent mess of popular tropes that don’t cohere well with each other. I’ll give them credit for at least attempting to branch out with different ideas, as the “heavy metal” sound was getting old fast, but the new ideas on here are surface level and don’t work with the band’s style. If nothing else, the new sounds feel like they came straight from a Top 20 Singles Chart algorithm and thus come across very disingenuous. “Million Miles an Hour” is decent, but the rest of this can get on the landfill with their earlier stuff. This is easily their worst album so far.
Prescription: A combination of their tired, derivative chord progressions and what was popular in 2014. I can’t prescribe you anything for this. Just avoid it and listen to something else instead.
Feed the Machine (2017)
The Doctor’s rating: 3/5
Analysis: I won’t pull any punches here; No Fixed Address was awful on almost every conceivable level. It feels like a palpable low point for a band that didn’t know where to take their sound, and what was given was an incoherent bag of ideas being mixed with some cliché rock riffs (even by Nickelback standards). Thankfully, Feed the Machine shows the band taking a step back to analyse what works for them. The band’s ninth LP, for the most part, avoids stadium-stomping hard rock riffs and tries its hand at writing songs with a little distinction. Chad’s melodies are annoying at times, but on the whole it’s a step up from what we’ve had the last couple albums.
Prescription: In a way it’s a back-to-basics, play it safe gambit, but the execution is done in a way that puts them back on their feet again, delivering the best parts of their signature sound with some solid ideas to push them forward. It’s not a perfect entry by any means, but it gets them back on track. Jam once and see how you get on.
Get Rollin’ (2022)
The Doctor’s rating: 2.8/5
Analysis: In a lot of ways Get Rollin’ follows in Feed the Machine’s footsteps, in that it applies some prudence to what it does and makes sure that what it is doing is right for the band and indeed, the fans. And I have to admit, Nickelback’s latest album isn’t too bad. It doesn’t branch out quite as adventurously as Feed the Machine, but what it does do is deliver a solid meat and potatoes Nickelback album, which, given the fact this band is nearly thirty years old, will cater to its core audience.
Prescription: All things considered, Get Rollin’ is okay. It won’t bring in a deluge of new fans, but it should appease the long-standing fans of the band, and frankly, at this point, that’s all it has to do. Jam once and see how you get on.
Doctor’s Notes:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Diagnosis: After going through Nickelback’s discography and coming out the other end alive to tell the tale, I can confidently say the blowback they got is a shade hyperbolic, to put it lightly. Don’t get me wrong, their output in the tens is pretty shit, but for most of their career they’ve released decent hard rock albums. Their run of albums in the noughties is where the most fun is had and anything in between varies in quality. With the exception of the vomit-inducing lyrics from the lizard Kroeger, you can neck a couple six-packs of cheap beer listening to the Long Road and you’ll have a pretty good night. I can think of worse ways of spending your evening. But to answer the question that was purposed at the start of this analysis – are they the Kings of buttrock? Honestly, I can think of better bands in the buttrock game, but with Nickelback you’ll get a couple of head bobs out of it.
