Nickelback truly is a special kind of band. You know a band is sh*tty when their highest-rated album at rateyourmusic.com (which is never wrong) has a 2.20/5 rating. In my RYM rating system, 2.0 is “bad” and 2.5 is “mediocre”. If I am to judge from the average ratings, Nickelback can't even pass as mediocre when at their best. Anyway...


Artist: Picklerack
Album: Curb
Year: 1996
Genre: Grunge (according to Wikipedia)

Silver Side Up was chosen since it was released in 2002, the same year as Slipknot's Iowa. Dark Horse was chosen because, according to RYM (which is always right), it's THE crappiest Nickelback album. I decided to listen to Curb since it's the band's debut, hopefully displaying them at a stage in which their music was less polished and Disney-like. And you know what? It actually... kind of did. Instead of the shiny, polished, teen-poppy etc. stuff on Silver Side Up and Dark Horse, this was some sort of attempt at grunge. Post-grunge, I think people like to call it. This removes one of the things to hate about the band, but there's still the lack of originality and musicianship, the repetition, and Chad's goddamned vocals*. If Bruce Springsteen** and that guy from Pearl Jam had a child, and that child smoked lots and lots and LOTS of cigarettes, I think he'd sound a bit like Chad.

I have a feeling that I could have listened to this two years ago, before I got all pretentious and stuff. Or maybe not. Either way, this isn't nearly as bad as those other two albums.

2/5

*I'm not saying Chad isn't awesome. The year this was released, was also the 30th anniversary of The Beatles' Revolver which would've never existed hadn't Chad written every single note on the album. He just releases sh*tty music now so that nobody will realize he did it. That's modesty.
**I like Bruce Springsteen. This simile is not meant to degrade him in any way.

This is freaking cool!








I disagree with the rating as I think it is pretty good actually, though all the good songs from the album were on the EP, including "Moving to Mars" which is not on Mylo Xyloto and is one of my top Coldplay songs.







This isn't fair, death metal albums get the coolest album artwork.








Yeah Dragonforce gets old pretty quickly.





Briks I like how I've listened to literally those exact same albums in the past few months, pretty much in that order as well.

Artist: Kaizers Orchestra
Album: Violeta Violeta Vol. I
Year: 2010
Chronological position: Sixth album
Genre: Alternative rock

You know what? Since I know these albums, and have known them for quite some time now, I think I'll do this in the track-by-track format, instead of my “trademark” mini-review format (which I'm so fond of because I'm lazy). Here we go...

The album starts with the song Philemon Arthur & the Dung. It is relatively simple, and doesn't really have anything all that interesting going on instrumentally, but the energy with which it's played makes it into a good opening track. The following song, Diamant til Kull, received quite a lot of airplay when it came out, and stayed relevant for some time. It's also a very catchy song. Femtakt Filosofi has traces of the band's old sound, but it's a bit chaotic, in my opinion. A filler track, although with a little bit of potential. The next one, Din Kjole Lukter Bensin, Mor, also has some resemblance with the band's early work, but does it better than the preceding track, since it's not as messy. En For Orgelet, En For Meg was pretty amazing when I heard it live, but the recorded version is not as fun. Decent, though. Tumor i Ditt Hjerte is very different from the classic Kaizers, and it is a great example of the grandiose sound that sets this album apart. I'm not really decided on whether I should call this song a filler, or let it pass as good, but I guess it's somewhere between those two. Hjerteknuser is unarguably the most popular song from the whole album. It was a huge hit here when it came out, and it still comes on the radio from time to time. It's also my favourite song from the album. The title translates to “heartbreaker”, which sounds like the title of a love song, but it's actually just a part of the album's storyline. Did I mention this is a concept album? All three Violeta Violeta albums are connected lyrically and thematically. Anyway, the song is followed by Psycho Under Min Hatt, which is, aptly, a chaotic and fast song, but not in the same way as “Femtakt Filosofi”. I tend to just skip Svarte Katter & Flosshatter because I think it's a filler. But the closer, Sju Bøtter Tårer Er Nok, Beatrice is a decent song with a kind of catchy chorus.


Conclusion:
This album is pompous and pretentious and all that, but I like it, even though it has some fillers. That means

3.5/5

...or not. Trollheart's not feeling too well, so he's taking a well-deserved break from everything MB for a while, as announced in The Playlist of Life. This means Nickelback Week won't be a collaborative effort, but since it's not yet over (Nickelback Month? Nickelback Year?), I'll continue doing it alone, and once again, I urge you to do the same...

Artist: Nipplesnack
Album: All the Right Reasons
Year: 2005
Genre: Garbage

You know what? I think I'm running out of degrading words to describe Nickelback with. That's part of the reason that this is my last Nickelback entry; I don't want to repeat myself. If there's a band you really like, you may be able to review all of their albums without running out of words, because their albums are so different, all their songs make you feel different things etc. But Nickelback doesn't really make me feel anything, save for bored, annoyed, and sometimes even a little bit angry. I'd never be able to use the track-by-track format for reviewing Nickelback, because their songs are so samey, and if I did, I'd probably just write the word “crap” eleven times or so, one for every song. The only thing I liked about this album was that the song “Side of a Bullet” was dedicated to the late Dimebag Darrell of Pantera. Too bad the song sucks, just like the rest of the album.

1/5

All the Right Reasons is my favorite Nickelback album because of one song(Animals).

Anytime I need a song to listen to while playing a racing game. I will add that song to the playlist and it is like a good luck charm for me and definitely gets me into the zone.

There is a sense of urgency to the song that I love even though the song is about ****ing his girl.

Artist: Dissection
Album: Storm of the Light's Bane
Year: 1995
Genre: Melodic black metal
Chronological position: Second album
Expectations before listening: Glorious earaches

This is considered to be one of the best black metal albums ever. Hell, even one of the best metal albums ever. I would have refused to listen to this had it been just a month ago, but I listened to Hvis Lyset Tar Oss just recently, and I guess I crossed some sort of barrier that way. You know, the one that you have to cross before you can just sit down and enjoy the music without giving too many damns about who made it.

Did this live up to my expectations? Well, no, since I didn't get any earaches. But there was glory, and lots of it. I loved the riffs, the sense of melody and the acoustic interludes, and the shrieks didn't really bother me. Should I give this a top rating?

5/5

Totally.