Nickelback

The Nickelback formula is in full effect on their latest collection of tunes voted, "Most likely to be heard in your neighborhood strip club," Dark Horse. With half of the songs being brashly rocking anthems to partying and getting laid and the rest forlorn ballads that yearn for love lost or never found; Chad Kroeger is either neck-deep in the lonely-at-the-top lifestyle, or he's just running out of ideas.

Given Kroeger and Co.'s knack for writing instantly infectious bar hits and this album's consistency in that regard, it would be ridiculous to consider Dark Horse anything but another solid addition to the Nickelback collection. This could be a blessing or a curse, depending on your viewpoint. If you're a loyal fan, the depravity-laden "Something In Your Mouth" and "Just To Get High," with its slightly snarled vocal and guitar-heroic solo will make the top of your playlist in no time. For the fair-weather fan, "Gotta Be Somebody," "If Today Was Your Last Day" and "I'd Come for You" bring the same emotional allure as past hits "Photograph" and "You Remind Me."

Not being proven rock veterans like AC/DC, who can get away with releasing the same album over and over again, it's hard to call Dark Horse anything more than the byproduct of a band that has yet to leave their comfort zone. That being said, the disc does deliver some catchy material that lives up to Nickelback standards; if you don't mind having heard it all before.

–Ryan Ogle
11.26.08

Nickelback are not known for their insight, but Chad Kroeger's caterwauling claim that "we got no class, no taste" on "Burn It to the Ground," is a slice of perceptive, precise self-examination. Nickelback are a gnarled, vulgar band reveling in their ignorance of the very notion of taste, knocking out knuckle-dragging riffs that seem rarefied in comparison to their thick, boneheaded words. Of the two, the music is far less offensive, particularly on Dark Horse, where they work with the legendary producer Robert "Mutt" Lange, who pumps up muscle on Nickelback's heaviest rockers and adding some color to their power ballads, suggesting some heretofore verboten suggestions of modernity in the form of electronic rhythms. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi