The core of the band hails from Hanna, Alberta. However they are now based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Nickelback was greatly helped by a Canadian radio law, known as Cancon. The law requires a certain percentage of music played on Canadian radio to be Canadian artists. Thanks a lot Cancon for your effort in bringing mainstream music the pile of crap we know as Nickelback. The name Nickelback comes from the change Chad Kroeger got from his local starbucks, the total was $1.45 and he paid $1.50.
Nickelback released their demo album Hesher under Platano Records in 1996. After getting some buzz with Hesher, Nickelback signed with Roadrunner records, and in 1996 came out with major record debut
Curb. Then March 7th 2000, they created sophmore album The State. An album that would have them start to infiltrate mainstream rock stations with single
Leader Of Men
In 2002 Nickelback was playing their second song at the Ilha do Ermal festival in Portugal on August 19, 2002, when Chad Kroeger was suddenly sprayed with a full bottle of water, hurled from somewhere within the crowd. Kroeger threw down his guitar and confronted the crowd, when he turned around he was struck in the head by what looked like a large rock. He replied with a wave and the entire band walked off stage. Kroeger and drummer at the time Ryan Vikedal flicked off the crowd. Unfortuntely Kroeger was unharmed.
For
The State,
Nickelback was:
Chad Kroeger-vocals, guitar
Ryan Peake- guitar, backing vocals
Mike Kroeger-bass
Ryan Vikedal-drums
The State is by far Nickelbacks best record to date, unfortunetly that isn’t saying much. The best thing I can say about this album is that Nickelback doesn’t seem to try to conform to mainstream rock, unlike all of their recent albums. Nickelback on this record has a very grunge sound, which is a very nice suprise if you are more familiar with albums such as
Silver Side Up, The Long Road, and All The Right Reasons. Some of the standout tracks on this album are [i]Breathe, Leader of Men acoustic and non-acoustic, and Old Enough.
Breathe opens with a very unique sound. Lyrically it is by far the best track with such lyrics as
“All I ever really wanted was to be like you. So perfect. So worthless. If I could take it all back think again, I would”.
Leader of Men has a pretty cool opening riff and rhythm. This track is the most diverse Kroeger and his band of merry men seem to get. The intensity that the band delivers during this song is quite good. I do however like the acoustic version better, it just seems to be alittle more heartfelt and sincere.
Old Enough is the last good track on the album. Kroeger’s voice seems to be just right for this song, he doesn’t over do it. My favorite lyrics from this track are
“Lately it seems like my dreams have started to die. It occured to me on the inside I guess so am I”
The major problem that this album suffers from is lack of diversty. Virtually all the tracks have the exact same sound with different lyrics. The sound in itself isn’t bad, the fact that Nickelback seems to be frightened to step out of their comfort zone for this album is. Every member of the band plays adequately, and quite exceptional. However I cannot emphasize enough that the lack of diversity in their sound drowns out what good it does have. Nickelback suffocates themselves with mediocrity here. Another major problem this album seems to have is that the main riffs to most tracks just seem to be bland and boring, a couple of songs for example are
Not Leaving Yet and
Deep.Also the album seems to be very drawn out.
In conclusion, the best this album has to offer is
Breathe,
Leader of Men: acoustic and non-acoustic, and
Old Enough However it was not enough to dig the entire album out of the trenches. Again the best thing about this album is that this is before they attempt to confrom to mainstream rock.. However they didn’t attempt to try anything new creatively. The main riffs on most tracks just seem to be balnd and boring.
Pros-They don’t seem to try to confrom to mainstream rock.
Breathe,
Leader of Men, and
Old Enough are great tracks, and Nickelback is extremely better than Hinder.
Cons- They don’t seem to try to step out of their comfort zone
Lack of diversity
Main riffs on most tracks seem to be bland and boring
Album seems to be drawn out
Big Tone’s overall rating 2.5 out of 5
Big Effin Tone
