-->
This week in Soundscan, supergroup Chickenfoot shifted a ridiculous number of records. I’m baffled too. Elsewhere, Iron Maiden had a solid debut and bands like Nickelback, Hollywood Undead, Shinedown, Slipknot, and Metallica continued on with business as usual.
The infamous Now That’s What They Call Music comp, now it’s thirtieth iteration (!), will never stop selling. Nor will Hannah Montana. Given, it’s tough for any true metal band to crack the Billboard 200, but Mastodon did just once again that by notching a #11 debut with Crack the Skye, beat out metal-wise only by Papa Roach (ugh). Elsewhere, we got some surprises from Chris Cornell, Twiztid (!?) and others. Sales figures for those and other notable hard rock and metal releases after the jump.
Blame it on Fall Out Boy. Shortly after these emo butt dumplings covered Pantera, Madonna did the same only to be one-upped by Gym Class Heroes covering Lamb of God. Now, behold… Nickelback covering Metallica. As much as it pains me to say it, Chad Kroeger imitating James Hetfield actually sounds better than James Hetfield imitating James Hetfield in the year 2008.
-VN
[Thanks: Travis]
Apparently you aren’t the only one who thinks all Nickelback songs sound the same.
In response to this video, bass player Mike Kroeger said “I think that’s remarkable for someone to notice that there is a hit quality. If all hits sound the same, then sorry. When you are a band that has a distinct style such as us or AC/DC, that happens. When you have a distinct style, you run the risk of sounding similar.”
Ladies and gentlemen, the distinct sound of “suck:”
-VN
News of Nickelback’s all-encompassing deal with touring behemoths Live Nation is all over the Internet. “Fuck Nickelback,” I hear you say. Touche. But let’s read between the lines here: Nickelback, quite honestly, are a large part of the reason that Roadrunner Records is able to continue to release records by other, less-sucky acts. Simply put, Nickelback’s 7 million records sold fund every 100,000 to 200,000-selling release by other Roadrunner bands we like, such as Killswitch Engage, Machine Head, Opeth, Megadeth, Dream Theater, Biffy Clyro, Life of Agony, Trivium, Soufly, etc etc etc etc. Get it?
The fact of the matter is, Nickelback leaving Roadrunner is actually BAD news for the metal community, as hard as this is to believe. Love them or hate them, Roadrunner definitely sits atop the metal label throne, and what’s bad for Roadrunner is bad for metal. And this is most certainly bad for Roadrunner.
The good news is that Roadrunner still has Nickelback under contract for two more records, so we can reasonably expect these two albums and subsequent touring cycles to last approximately five years. Sweet. Wait, what the fuck… did I really just say that?
-VN
[Source: Billboard.com]
From the “Gee I wish I’d written this” files: Madonna apparently played a snippet of Pantera’s “A New Level” at a recent concert (video above), and some Blabberbrats have their panties in a twist over it. Rob at Metal Injection reports:
“…much like with Fall Out Boy covering Pantera, some Pantera fans are not pleased (or intelligent). Here’s what some loyal Cowboys From Hell are saying over at Blabbermouth:
anybody who thinks this is cool should never ever post a negative post about any of the bands from the 80’s again!the fact that the she is holding a guitar does not make her a rocker and just because it happens to be a pantera riff does not make it a tribute or cool. she belongs in the dance hall of fame not the rock and roll hall. I did not even watch this garbage but more than likely she is lip syching like everything else. the people praising her for this are the same ones who trashed nickelback for making a real dime tribute song and they used his solo on the track.just another pub. stunt by this overrated attention whore.
Actually, the fact that she played the riff does make it a tribute. Thats actually exactly what it was. Why are you commenting on something you didn’t even bother watching? I’ve never trashed Nickelback for making a Dime tribute, I trash them cause they absolutely blow.”
I hate Madonna as much the next guy, but seriously, some of these comments are pretty ridiculous.
Head over to Metal Injection for the rest of their awesome commentary on these events; then weigh in on the righteousness, or lack thereof, of Madonna’s cover below.
-AR
Even though Nickelback’s success has pretty much singlehandedly funded tons of money-losing releases by my favorite bands on Roadrunner Records, this kind of pot-shot journalism is still irresistible [from The Sun, via Idolator]. In a recent interview with Playboy, the curley-locked Nickelback frontman revealed the time he got down with his short and curlies:
“I put my own dick in my mouth. I was 14 and much more flexible at the time.
It was soft and required a lot of pulling. I really wanted that case of beer.”
Wow. This is how you remind me of how much you really suck… dick.
-VN
Advertisements:
