Nickelback
- The long Road

 

Note: 7,5/10, because it' s too repetitive

Nickelback… is "on fashion", I have to admit it. BUT! it' s a metal band, yes they are! And not a "neo-metal" band, at all. Maybe a "commercial-metal" band, but metal: riffs, dark atmosphere, an agressive singer, rythms,...: we do speak about metal here, not simple rock: soft-metal may be soft... but it is metal.

I thought this introduction was necessary, but let's talk about this album now: I like its "dark" atmosphere a lot, I also quite appreciate that a band (finaly?) accepts to talk about something else than "ooooh hoow much I loooOOOooove youuUUUUuuu my love" / "...we caaaAAAAaan't love each otheEEEeeeEEEr" / "how nice draaaagooOOOoons fly over the lAAAaaake in the valleeYYYyyyyY" / ...: some serious attitude never killed anyone. Still, they "over-used" [correct?] this atmosphere: this album can become boring after a while... I mean: you can listen to it once without any problem, you will probably even love it (very well composed, played,...), but if you try to listen to it a second time right after... I'm afraid you will feel like re-listening the same song all over again, after a while! They used one kind of dark-atmosphere + mainly used mid-tempos (-> even rythm won't help you find some change), so, after a while... There are two or three exceptions, but over 14 songs... that's quite a few! It' s also sad they didn't try to make some really "heavy / bang your head once and for all"-kind of song, sticking to mid-tempos; of course it suits the atmosphere of the album... but it also shows they really intended to "stick" to "something special" in this album... well why not, but sticking "that" much isn't the best idea guys!

On their previous album, they had had some "neo-like" sounds here or there, but nothing of that kind here, so everything's perfect. They only need to learn how to make several variations of a same atmosphere now, and they will be able to enter the next level...
Oh and note the very good cover of Elton John's Saturday Night's alright!
And don't trust the radio-most-soft version of Someday, the single: 1) it doesn't reflect AT ALL the musical style of the band, far more "rageous" than this single lets you believe + 2) the "electric" version of the album is 100 000 times better!

 

Track-list:

01- Flat on the Floor
02- Do this Anymore
03- Someday
04- Believe or not
05- Feelin' way too damn good
06- Because of you
07- Figured you out
08- Should've listened
09- Throw yourself away
10- Another hole in the head
11- See you at the Show
12- Saturday Night's alright
13- Yanking out my...
14- Learn the Hardway


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