Even the power ballad Home carries actual details of gritty realism to fit comfortably alongside some of the album’s heavier cuts.ĭon’t construe that mean that Nickelback have improved as songwriters by any significant degree, though. The likes of Coin For The Ferryman and For The River mightn’t be brimming with colour or texture, but there’s a sublime amount of crunch that’s certainly preferable to the washy guitars of Song On Fire and After The Rain, or the clumsy drag of The Betrayal (Act III). Of course, that all depends on the tolerance level for Chad Kroeger’s hemmed-in howl of a voice, though to be fair, it’s a lot more natural when paired with a more metal-leaning sound. That’s not to oversell this by any means – by nature, a Nickelback album demands expectations to be tempered – but by those standards, Feed The Machine does indeed pull a few tricks that are worth repeated visits. Except, maybe not, as Feed The Machine shows that Nickelback might actually be trying, doubling down on their heavier, more rock-oriented side that they can actually do fairly well, rather than just another reskinned version of the base template. They even follow the classic Nickelback cross-section that virtually all of their material adheres to – a heavier but incredibly broad take on politics a big ballad for the guaranteed rock radio airplay and something slightly more melodic pitched between the two, enough to assume that this is little more than the latest product to come off the assembly line. The embrace of funk, disco and Flo Rida features of 2014’s No Fixed Address might’ve been different for them, but compared to the really exciting stuff out there, it barely offered anything.Īnd judging by the buildup to Feed The Machine, it would appear that Nickelback themselves are denying whatever stock that direction had, given their choice of preview tracks for this ninth album. But even when they do decide to dip their toes outside their comfort zone, the results still aren’t exactly thrilling. It’s easy to see why that would rub some the wrong way though, given their system of churning out a near identical album skeleton that’s just slightly fleshed out for each release. Perhaps switching out “worst” for “most inoffensive” would be more accurate, as the band’s method of staying well away from any sort of boundaries has led them to become the faces of radio rock, for better or for worse. The assertions of Nickelback being the “worst band in the world” are grossly exaggerated.

Nickelback album 2016