Nickelback Guitarist Says Band Could ‘Probably Agree on Doing a Heavy Covers Album: Testament, Slayer, Meshuggah’

Nickelback Flickr Kerry WikiMedia Commons
Published on:

Most people acquainted with the metal genre know that Nickelback is far from the heaviest thing in the world.

They may have their moments where the guitars crunch a little to be sure, but Chad Kroeger is the person you go to when you want a more watered-down version of what rock and roll is supposed to be.

Then again, the guys do have the chops for something heavy, and according to the band, we may be looking at a heavy album in their future.

A few years back, the internet lost their shit when bassist Mike Kroeger talked about the idea of putting together a covers album of all Slayer tunes.

He later clarified: “What I said was, ‘I would like to make a Slayer cover record or have a Slayer cover band or make a metal album.’ I didn’t say [it involved] Nickelback … Like, ‘Hey, everybody, be outraged because Nickelback wants to make a heavy metal album.'”

While it may have been misconstrued at the time, guitarist Ryan Peake is weighing in on the subject now as well, saying:

I don’t know if it would be something we all could agree on because we all have our different likes and dislikes when it comes to music. Mike’s is really heavy, and I like Slayer, so I get that. I think we could probably agree on doing a heavy covers album or something like that. We grew up with that.”

Then again, this might just be one of the many different roads that Nickelback might go down in the coming years, as Ryan continues “I don’t know. This is what I like about this band. I don’t think anything’s going to be so crazy to hear from us. I think if a metal band went and made a full-on country album, it might be, like, ‘What are you doing? You’ve got nine metal albums, and now this?

We’ve kind of dipped our toes in a lot of different music, I feel, and especially with ‘No Fixed Address’, where we kind of tried to stretch our legs a bit, that it’s maybe believable.”

From what Ryan says though, he does seem to be pulling from the veterans of the genre, saying “I had goosebumps like crazy, and I love when music does that. And it doesn’t matter where it comes from. Maybe do a Testament, Slayer, Meshuggah album? I don’t know.”

This might be one of the wildest experiments Nickelback has subjected us to yet, but who knows? Since these guys are more than competent musicians behind the scenes, imagine how it would sound. In the meantime, here’s a taste:

Watch: When Nickelback Covered Metallica's 'Sad But True' & Actually Crushed It