Nickelback

About Nickelback

Canadian rockers Nickleback have won over enough fans to fill arenas with their heartfelt, solid songs-guitars growl, the verses are tense and melodic and the choruses explode. Singer/guitarist Chad Kroeger has a classic, comfortable rock voice, capable carrying a strong melody or shouting out the loud parts. The band took their name from Chad's brother (and band bassist) Mike Kroeger. Mike worked at Starbucks and found he frequently had to give a nickel back to customers. Nickleback also credit some of their initial success to the Canadian Cancon law, which stated that a certain percentage of music on Canadian radio had to be made by Canadian bands. Their second full-length album, The State, earned them their first gold record and featured the singles "Leader of Men," "Breathe" and "Old Enough." They all charted on the Canadian hot 100 and earned the band a devoted following in their home country. With 2000's Silver Side Up, the hirsute Kroeger brothers took their melodic version of grunge rock across the border. Universally appealing singles like "How You Remind Me" and "Too Bad," with their huge hooks and driving melodies got the band heavy rotation on American radio stations and MTV. Though Nickleback aren't going to reinvent the rock n' roll wheel, they clearly have the chops for some classic power rock. On their 2005 album All the Right Reasons the boys seem to be taking a pause and looking around-the lyrics are less straightforward and the band seem to be focusing more on friendships, the high cost of success and aging gracefully and less on girlfriend troubles.