While most fans of the Roadrunner Records roster would likely argue otherwise, Canadian hard rockers Nickelback remain a crucial part of the label’s legacy. The 6x multi-platinum success of the much-maligned band’s third album “Silver Side Up” brought a new level of commercial appeal to the label.
With its follow-up “The Long Road” achieving 3x multi-platinum status, and the band’s 2005 diamond-certified outing “All The Right Reasons” ultimately sending the group off into the stratosphere, the culture and focus at Roadrunner Records also shifted in turn.
With hit bands like Nickelback and Slipknot taking up the lion’s share of attention and promotional budgets at the label, some of the other artists on the roster at the time voiced their grievances at being given less opportunities or overlooked.
As such, the reputation of developing groundbreaking underground metal bands Roadrunner Records had fostered for decades prior also began to shift towards further attempts at commercial success, much to the chagrin of longtime artists who had helped build up the label prior.
Still, Nickelback‘s tenure on Roadrunner Records could have very well taken a very nü-metal-oriented turn. The band’s co-founding bassist Mike Kroeger recently appeared on the ‘Meep Meep Podcast‘ and shared his admiration for some of the key records from the label, centering around from the 90s and early aughts run. He stated of his favs [transcribed by theprp.com]:
“The “Roots” album by Sepultura, that song in particular on that album — “Roots Bloody Roots” — Oh my god… You just want to run into a wall. But it was Ross Robinson-produced, so there’s that Ross Robinson kind of signature two rhythm guitars that kinda are very different, but when they come together, they just make this reinforced concrete, unreal sound. And the playing and all the performances are outrageous on that one.” “[Sepultura]s “Beneath The Remains” album is also huge for me.
[Type O Negative‘s] “Bloody Kisses” is crazy. All the Slipknot records. All of them. All of them. I love all of those albums. I remember when I got the first record on the CD with the hole drilled through the barcode because it was a promo. And I remember the first time I listened to “Eyeless” like ‘what in the fuck is this?’ Like ‘what in the fuck is this? I gotta know more about this.’ [They] turned out to become one of my favorite artists, still. I still just absolutely roar that shit. Fear Factory was massive for me.”
This is when podcast host Ryan Rainbro went on to joke that Nickelback should collaborate with Ross Robinson. Known as ‘the godfather of nü-metal’, Robinson‘s fingerprints are all over the aforementioned genre. From his groundbreaking work with Korn on their first two albums, to Sepultura‘s “Roots“, Slipknot‘s self-titled and beyond, his unorthodox production style and label involvement was a cornerstone of the nü-metal movement.
As Kroeger went on to reveal, that idea was actually something he floated back in the day. He also had hoped the band could work with legendary rock and metal producer Terry Date, who oversaw crucial records form Pantera, Soundgarden, Deftones, Limp Bizkit, Incubus and numerous others. Kroeger went on to first say of attempting to get Robinson involved:
“Dude, it wasn’t… I didn’t not bring that up. It didn’t make it out the meeting. But the other one that I really, really wanted to work with was Terry Date. And he unfortunately passed, for whatever reason, maybe he doesn’t like our band, I don’t know. I never found out what the reason was. But it was just ‘no.’ Cause I love Ross Robinson and I love Terry Date. I think what Terry Date did with Pantera was nothing short of historic, and I would love our albums to sound even a little bit like that.”
Nickelback and Pantera had actually established a strong friendship together, going so far as to have the late Pantera great “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott guest on a cover of Elton John‘s “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)“. Nickelback would also release the track “Side Of A Bullet“, which paid tribute to Dimebag in the wake of his murder. It featured guitar parts laid down originally as outtakes by Dimebag during previous album sessions. When Dimebag‘s fandom of Nickelback was addressed in this new discussion, Kroeger stated:
“He was a huge fan. He was a big, big fan of my brother [Chad Kroeger, Nickelback vocalist/guitarist.] Big, big fan of my brother, both of those guys [Dimebag and his late brother, Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott.] Vinnie and Dime were both unapologetic fans too. I’m sure that there was more than a few times when some the metal standard-bearers were probably like, ‘What do you mean Nickelback? What are you talking them for. Who gives a fuck about those guys.’ And they loved it, and they loved us.
And they were unapologetic about a lot of their music that they liked. I remember riding in a limo with those guys from a gig in Dallas to the Clubhouse one time. And Vinnie was just like, if you could do backflips in a limo, he would be doing backflips in a limo for Christina Aguilera.
He was like, ‘Listen to this shit!’ And he would just crank this Aguilera stuff, Like, Ok, wow. What a Twilight Zone episode man. Like, I got one of the most influential metal drummers in the world, ever, playing me Christina Aguilera songs, on the way to a strip joint.”
