Review Summary: The musical equivalent of WalMart, singin’ about drugs, sex and sometimes they play ”make believe” and act like they’re a decent band.
Nickleback and I have had a love/hate relationship, over the course of time that I’ve been a part of this website. If you were to go back and dig around through my old reviews, you can find two other reviews of two what are regarded by some to be their worst albums. On each one, I had at least had one or two positive things to say, and even stated that one of their albums, might be one of the greatest ***posts of all time, as opposed to a serious album, and when viewed that way, is excellent. Their other one that I looked at was just plain horrid. And here I am again with review number three. I genuinely don’t know why I’m so allured to them, as to write three reviews on their behalf. I guess bands like them are just the easiest to write about. Mainstream, easily digestible, pop, that’s disguised as rock. In fact, that’s what most of my reviews have been over, despite liking many other artists way more. So with this review, I’m going to disconnect myself as hard as I can from my other two reviews, and all preconceived notions about this album. So without further ado, I give you, “Feed The Machine” by Nickelback.
The album starts out surprisingly strong, and on the first song, they completely embrace a more alt-metal sound, and as a result, come off sounding much heavier, and much less like the “Pop Metal” that we were getting with their previous efforts. The song starts with muted, stuttering guitars, jumping across each side of your ears, creating an interesting effect, before the song’s main riff is briefly played in the beginning, giving us a taste of what is to come. The first verse shows up, and surprisingly enough, we get something completely unexpected: Decent lyricism. In general that is the main complaint that I’ve always had with Nickelback. Chad Kroeger is (in general) An absolutely horrendous lyricist. However, this song almost leads me to believe that it’s possible that he really has been writing sexist, and occasionally racist, and always extremely pandering songs, just to make money, (to feed the machine, if you will). Because there is some legitimately good and creative writing at play here. One highlights being:
“The gears forever turn to grind the mice
Will you become the fuel for sacrifice?
Power absolutely all for show
The piper blows his flute and off you go”
Does that sound like Nickelback to you?(that was a question mark, but this site refuses to work like it should) Because it doesn’t to me. It’s not amazing, or revolutionary, but it’s surprisingly passable. As for sound, the first verse’s instrumentation quiet and suppressed, with the spotlight shining directly on Chad Kroeger, who sounds legitimately good here, which is a far cry from anything that you could find on Here and Now, which was my most recent experience I had with this band.
When the first pre chorus, rolls up, the music starts to pick up momentum and volume a little bit, but does not yet reach the heaviness of the brief stint of actual metal that we saw at the beginning quite yet. After the pretty alright pre chorus, it flows beautifully into the chorus, which still doesn’t go all out with the sound quite yet, with the instrumentals soaring in the background, as Chad’s voice once again steals the show, with his angry, albeit subdued, vocals, and (this is as incomprehensible to me as it is to you) they show off a bit of subtlety, and nuance.
Holy ***. Than THEN we get to hear the riff from the beginning. And it’s as glorious as any decent Nickelback riff, (which means it’s probably stolen but sounds superb) With a much lower tone, it’s frantic, chaotic, fast, and surprisingly, there’s a touch of industrial metal here. And this, married with the fast paced, and energetic drumming over top of this riff, creates for some of the best sounding material from them, that I’ve heard in a long time.
As far as sound goes, second verse: same as the first. After this, another (slightly different pre-chorus) And we get the chorus again, and it’s the same as last time but then, we get a pretty decent bridge following this, (I never said the song’s structure was unique) with the same positives that I already had, this then transitions into an instrumental break, with huge pounding drums for a moment, before giving way to a solo that sounds like something out of a Steel Panther or Black Stone Cherry song, with fast almost nonsensical notes and tones. It’s fast, mechanical, loud, and arguably one of the best solos to come out of this band.
We get another quieter, restrained bridge, with arguably some of the most underwhelming lyrics in the song, but by no means are they bad. Shortly thereafter, it slides into another chorus, this time with some added sound effects, instruments, and as a whole it just sounds fuller, and more powerful. The song fades out, with the earlier thumping drums from before and the song’s main riff, ending with scattered electronic noises and tones. Overall, for a Nickelback song, this is absolutely fantastic, and in general, it’s very enjoyable to listen to, with a multitude of genuinely good musical ideas, and elements.
Next on the chopping block is “Coin for the Ferryman” which is a bit of a mixed bag. The song starts out with a fuzzy, simplistic, lo-fi, guitar intro, before slowly giving way to the same intro, but a bit more defined. The first verse, primarily centers around the drumming, with small stabs of guitar throughout, and it’s pretty good, with no noticeable problems. The riff from the beginning briefly makes a return, before immediately jumping into the second verse, which has a bit more emphasis on the guitars. After the second verse, there is a great pre chorus, that slowly builds tension, as all instrumentals cut out, except for the buzz of a guitar amp, and that really cliche thing that they do in this genre where they keep playing the same chord over and over, progressively getting louder, before the song gets quiet for a small fraction of a second, before, exploding into a loud, adrenaline pumping chorus, with Chad almost screaming the lyrics, complemented, by more muffled vocals in the background.
Another almost industrial metal sounding riff is played over the chorus, before it reverts back to the riff from the intro for a moment before the third verse comes up. It’s similar to the first and second with some added instruments.
The second verse, and chorus are almost identical, in sound and structure, with even minor differences, being hard to pick up, on my relatively well trained ears. At this point, we get another guitar, that sounds like another guitar solo.
“IS THERE ANYTHING THAT MAKES THIS SOLO EXTRA GOOD⁈” I hear you asking, as you read this.
“Naw. It’s a perfectly passable guitar solo,” I dryly reply, underwhelmed at best.
As for lyrics, it would be best described as (This is gonna be weird so bare with me) If Danger Days era, My Chemical Romance, were to write a song that the main characters in from that album, would want to listen to in their free time, or while ***in *** up. If you haven’t listened to that album before, I’m going to have to politely ask you to leave, because even though it isn’t mentioned again in this review, it is leaps and bounds better than this album. Essentially, this is a admittedly, really good nihilistic, immature, party anthem. And I’ve gone on record in the past, ***ting on Nickelback for doing the same thing, but the high quality instrumentation, and the slightly more enjoyable vocal performance from Mr. Kroeger makes this one considerably better.
This is where things would seem to take a turn for the worst. I’ll make it brief, because this review is a track-by-track, it’s already running pretty long, I’m only three tracks in, and I do not want to end up writing a short novella about Nickelback.
“Song on Fire” Is as stale, bland, forgettable, and uninspired as is humanly possible. This song has no right to exist, and I think the world would be better off without it. This is the first song on the album that legitimately bring this album down. Because before this, it has been surprisingly good, aside from some poor lyricism on “Coin for the Ferryman” This was the point where I started to get worried that I was in for another ***ty Nickelback album, as opposed to a not ***ty Nickelback album, which if we’re being completely fair here, has yet to happen. Is this album an exception? I have no idea. All I know that this song is best left forgotten, because “Song on Fire” is more akin to flaming garbage, than a decent song.
Okay. If you’re still reading at this than first of all: Thank you, I commend you and your ability to persevere through such large blocks of potentially typo ridden text. And second of all: Thank you again, because you already saw my rating, so I appreciate you giving this a read. This son of a bitch is practically my Magnum Opus.
Up next we get back to the high quality ***. “Must Be Nice” is arguably one of the best songs on the album. Sure, it’s a Nickelback song, so the song might take itself a little to seriously, but it’s also strangely tongue and cheek. Another plus for this song, is the fact that it’s considerably more politically charged than some of the previous ones. And considering the album name and cover, this song is what I was hoping to get going into this album. The lyrics however, are nothing to really write home about.
Where this song truly shines, are the absolutely stellar instrumentals. Regardless of whether or not this is a Nickelback song, (Spoiler alert: It is) It can hold its own when compared to songs from arguably better and more talented artists and bands. This song, is downright fantastic, and shows what Nickleback is capable of, when they’re at their best. The song is so bluesy and groovy, that it’s impossible to not have a good time while listening to it. Even harder to do, is not bob your head, or tap your foot to. I’d imagine that it’s only a matter of time before this one becomes a staple at live shows. And that guitar solo, in around of the middle almost made me nut. In a perfect world, all of their songs would be as good as this one. However, that could never happen, because in a perfect world, we wouldn’t have Nickelback either, so guess we just can’t have nice things. Must be nice though.
“After the Rain” is a borderline ***ty ballad. This song has me EXTREMELY close to just copy and pasting my rant about “Song on Fire” from earlier in the review. However, this song does enough good, that I can’t just do that. First of all, it’s important to note that the chorus is pretty terrible. And while the lyrics aren’t that bad, (As far as crappy power ballads go) it’s so generic and predictable that it hurts. Hearing a song like this, after a song like “Must be Nice” genuinely pisses me off quite a bit, given the quality of “Must be Nice.” The beginning of this song sounds like Home Depot commercial, (And I say this in the best possible way) and when the first verse shows up, it doesn’t change it up too much. With quiet little guitar stabs, over some pretty generic, loud, pounding drums. Obviously, this song aims to try to sound, big and grand, with it’s almost soaring choruses, and bridges, but ultimately, it falls flat.
Much like a normal river- after the rain, rivers tend to be loud, choppy, fast, and energetic. And that brings us to the fittingly named “For the River” Which just so happens to be really good. And after the general unpleasantness of “After the Rain” this is a pleasant surprise. Similar to how I previously stated, in my amazing analogy, this song is a complete departure from its predecessor. The slower drumming, mixed with the faster paced, surprisingly good rhythm guitar, creates an interesting dynamic to the verses that you won’t find elsewhere in the album.
The rhythm guitar, also sound like someone scraping the side of a guitar pick, along the lower E string, and it sounds way better than I could have expected from a Rhythm Guitar section, much less one on a Nickelback album. The bridge isn’t exactly too refreshing, but flows well with the rest of the song, and Chad hits some of his lower notes very well. The chorus is also very good, achieving a similar effect to what “After the Rain” wanted to do, but with totally different methods, and for totally different reasons. The dual guitars, add a nice layer of “complexity” to an otherwise simple chorus. Immediately after the chorus, we get a scattered, and disjointed, albeit, strangely rhythmic guitar solo. The second verse is identical to the first, in terms of sound, with nothing new here, and the same goes for the chorus. After verse 2, we get an absolutely glorious guitar solo, that meshes beautifully with the rhythm sections. After this, we get the chorus again, (Which is just as tasty as last time) and we then proceed to consensually get ear ***ed, with another, more bluesy, southern sounding guitar solo. This song on the album best highlights the step up in musicianship from the bands previous outputs. And this song in particular, shows the lead and rhythm guitar, working together beautifully, it ends up creating one of the best songs on the album.
The lyrics on this thing, are also pretty decent, when you consider the band and genre that we’re dealing with, however it doesn’t really compare to anything else.
“Home” is an absolute ***show. It’s the hatechild of cliches, general unoriginality, and terrible lyrics. Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus/Bridge, than an absolutely laughable guitar solo. As as if I didn’t already wish I was dead, the song goes in for the kill with another chorus. As in, no song has ever made me want to commit suicide as much as this one did. And coming from a My Chemical Romance fan, that has to count for something.
“The Betrayal - Act III” Is likely referring to how incomprehensibly awful “Home” is. Especially when you consider the fact that immediately proceeding home is “For the River,” which is still incredible. This song is like an apology for that song. “The Betrayal - Act III” is a borderline progressive metal anthem, featuring heavily downtuned guitars, passionate vocals, very competent instrumentation, and an intro that sounds like it was ripped straight off of the song “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Warrant. So yeah, all things considered, this is a good one. I’m sure that fans are divided by this one, as up until this album, I’m not entirely sure if Nickelback has even made a song that isn’t so excruciatingly, mind numbingly, radio friendly, and easily digestible, that only the most faithful, god fearing christian households could possibly listen to their music, and unironically state, “Oh my goodness! This is so heavy! Electric guitars? Those are the Devil’s instrument! Such blasphemy will not be tolerated!”
So basically, “The Betrayal - Act III” is the heaviest song that the band has put out to date, and it’s admittedly, pretty spicy, and any good God fearing Christian should stay from it.
Before the song even starts, “Silent Majority’s” name already makes it clear what kind of song this is going to be: A hamfisted attempt at being political, that’s going to fall apart spectacularly. And in case you were wondering, that’s exactly what it is. With lyrics so bland, that it’s essentially the musical commensurate of fried rice. In terms of musicality, it’s basically if Taylor Swift decided to make a rock song, without ever having hear a rock song before, and the same goes for lyrics. This song isn’t offensively bad. It’s just offensively forgettable.
“Photogr-” oh um, I mean “Every Time We’re Together” is as stale, bland, forgettable, and uninspired as is humanly possible. This song has no right to exist, and I think the world would be better off without it. This is another song on the album that legitimately brings it down. Because before this, it has been surprisingly good, save for all the bad songs, (of which there are a lot) This was the point where I came to the conclusion that this was probably another ***ty Nickelback album, as opposed to a not ***ty Nickelback album, which if we’re being completely fair here, has yet to happen. Is this album an exception? I have no idea. All I know that this song is best left forgotten, because “Every Time We’re Together” is more similar to “Photograph,” than this paragraph is to the one that I wrote about “Song on Fire”
“The Betrayal - Act I” Is this song’s last chance to do something really cool, and change my opinion on this album as a whole. And starting out, it is definitely quite good. I’m listening to it as I write it. This intro is definitely enjoyable, albeit strikingly similar to the beginning of “The Betrayal - Act III” And it sounds like it’s about to get going now, this had better be good…
Oh. It’s over.
In retrospect, I did a lot of bitching in that review. But after having let the album sink in, there are only two absolutely terrible songs, an other than that, most of them were average, at least. However, out of the eleven tracks on this album, I genuinely enjoyed five, and when I saw what I’m about to say, this is more of a compliment to the band, than an insult.
I think this is the best Nickelback release to date. Obviously, there are a lot of really bad tracks here. And considering I enjoyed less than half of the album as a whole, when I’ve gone on record saying that I think almost all of Dark Horse is enjoyable to listen to, you should obviously take my opinion with a grain of salt. In order to fully appreciate this album, you have to put up with a LOT of bull***.
However, (and this is a first for the band) the genuinely good, far outweighs the bad. For every generic, bland, or outright bad ballad, there’s at least one incredible song to counter it, and then some. The album’s best songs, are much better than how bad its worst songs are. The perfect sound of middle ground.
Ahh. I did it. I’ve brought to a close, this trilogy of reviews, that I brought upon myself. After this, I’m not writing another Nickelback review, unless forced to by some outside entity. So now that my quest is finally complete, what is my final opinion on Nickelback as a whole.
*** Nickelback.
Everyone once and awhile they get lucky, but as a whole, they are an awful band. I think that they can make some pretty good instrumentals, and Chad’s voice is great, managing to hit notes that very few can with such ease. But the lyrics, and unoriginality of their music as a whole, prevents them from ever reaching a point where they could be seen as anything but good.
And in honor of this momentous occasion, (I’m not gonna write about Nickelback anymore) I’ve created a special playlist on Spotify, of all of Nickelback’s greatest(most tolerable) songs that they’ve ever released. I’ve set it up in a way that you could listen to it in order, and it could potentially feel like a legitimate album, and it is my unprofessional opinion, that this is the quintessential way to listen to this dumpster fire of a band.
https://open.spotify.com/user/pagepage21/playlist/4zK2KlIgE0OjYv0C6A8ZlC?si=YmKplDHSQkqeodpUAzSA5A
Thank you for reading.
