Best Nickelback Albums: All 10 Studio Releases, Ranked, Reviewed

9: ‘Curb’ (1996)

Independently distributed back in 1996, Nickelback’s self-financed debut album, Curb, flew under the radar upon its release but still gave the Canadian rockers their first taste of the rock’n’roll lifestyle. “Curb is raw Nickelback,” Kroeger said in an interview with antiMusic. “It is interesting. There’s a lot of good songs on there.” While the band embarked on a city-hopping tour in a minivan that left them living hand to mouth, this grungy first effort went on to sell 300,000 copies in the US, spurring Nickelback on to up the ante on their next offering.

Must hear: Fly

8: ‘Here And Now’ (2011)

Hunkering down in Mountain View Studio, on their home turf of Abbotsford, Canada, Nickelback self-produced their eighth studio album, Here And Now. “This isn’t our The Wall or anything like that,” Kroeger told Billboard. “This is just four guys jumping back in the studio to write and record 11 new songs and make sure each one of them gets as much attention as they need.” Going on to sell more than 2.2 million copies worldwide, Here And Now certainly demands attention. From the disco-flavoured bounce of Kiss It Goodbye to the sugary sweet shuffle of When We Stand Together, it ranks among the best Nickelback albums for introducing an eclectic selection of drum grooves to complement the band’s more metal-leaning fare.

Must hear: When We Stand Together

7: ‘Get Rollin’’ (2022)

Intermingling Nickelback’s love of pop-metal riffage (San Quentin) with a timely jaunt into bro-country (Those Days), the group’s tenth album, Get Rollin’, finds them playing fast and loose with Southern rock influences, with uncharacteristic nods toward Garth Brooks and Creedence Clearwater Revival. “Everything we do [now] is this weird conglomeration. It’s a melting pot of music,” Kroeger told NME. “You don’t know where you’re pulling it from, but it’s just everything you’ve listened to.”

Must hear: San Quentin

6: ‘Feed The Machine’ (2017)

Recorded three years after Kroeger had surgery to remove a cyst from his vocal cords, the politically motivated Feed The Machine finds Nickelback playing to their alt-metal strengths, resulting in a howling blast of full-throated protest that ranks among the best Nickelback albums. “At the time we wrote Feed The Machine, all the nationalist zealots were coming out of the woodwork with their crazy haircuts,” Kroeger said in an interview with Australia’s Mixdown Magazine. “It seems like, the crazier the person’s haircut, the nuttier their political views are.” Weaponising hard-rock guitar riffs to lambast the rise of Trumpian tyranny, Feed The Machine was the sound of Nickelback developing a social conscience.

Must hear: Feed the Machine

5: ‘The State’ (1998)

A self-financed punt, The State was a gamble that ultimately paid off for Nickelback. “That was where we took the bigger risk,” guitarist Ryan Peake said in the band’s 2023 documentary, Hate To Love: Nickelback. “Where we wanted to kind of go big, get a producer that had a name, a mixer that also could help us get the kind of sounds we’re looking for. So we took a loan out for about $30,000.” As Nickelback gigged relentlessly to pay back the debt, they caught the attention of Roadrunner Records, who signed the group and then reissued The State to the wider US market. Bolstered by the success of its lead single, Leader Of Men, which peaked at No.8 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, The State went on to sell 1.1 million copies in the US, paving the way for Nickelback to strike gold with their third album, Silver Side Up.

Must hear: Leader Of Men

4: ‘The Long Road’ (2003)

Continuing Nickelback’s reign over MTV, the group’s fourth album, The Long Road, took a joy ride through angsty alt-rock and heavy-metal grit, breaking the speed limit thanks to runaway hits such as Someday and Feelin’ Way Too Damn Good. “This album has got some far heavier moments than have ever existed in Nickelback’s history,” Kroeger later said. “We like to push that envelope, and I think we have with The Long Road.” Easily one of the best Nickelback albums, The Long Road may have emerged in the shadow of Silver Side Up, but it more than set its own course for success.

Must hear: Someday

3: ‘Dark Horse’ (2008)

Tasked with following the multi-platinum-selling All The Right Reasons, Nickelback felt the odds were against them when they started working on their fifth album, Dark Horse. “There’s a mountain sitting behind us,” Kroeger told Billboard, acknowledging the weight of expectation. “We’ve got to try and put something out now that’s going to stand up to that. So for us, the bar has been raised ridiculously high.” To help with the challenge, Nickelback enlisted Def Leppard and AC/DC producer Robert “Mutt” Lange to beef up their stadium-rock sound and turn each song into a prize-winning thoroughbred. With 5.7 million copies sold to date, Dark Horse deserves its high ranking on this list of the best Nickelback albums.

Must hear: Gotta Be Somebody

2: ‘Silver Side Up’ (2001)

The breakout success of Nickelback’s third studio album, Silver Side Up, was nothing short of phenomenal. “We believed in the songs; we believed in what we wrote,” Kroeger said in an interview with Billboard. “It’s just head and shoulders above everything we had ever recorded before.” In an era when rock’n’roll’s popularity was declining in the face of stiff competition from glitzy pop stars and street-smart rap artists, the album’s lead single, How You Remind Me, defied all the odds and peaked at No.1 in the US, transforming Nickelback into one of the biggest rock bands of the post-grunge generation. Eventually going on to sell 11.1 million copies worldwide, Silver Side Up earns its place among the best Nickelback albums thanks to its role in giving the group the breakthrough they’d worked so hard to achieve.

Must hear: How You Remind Me

1: ‘All The Right Reasons’ (2005)

Aided by the US Top 10 hit singles Photograph and Rockstar, Nickelback’s fifth studio album, All The Right Reasons, ticked every box. “Everything was just really clicking for us at that time,” Kroeger told CBC Radio, “and those songs were all just really strong songs.” Racking up 11.8 million in worldwide sales, All The Right Reasons still features many of the best Nickelback songs, and it proved that the band were in it for the long haul – this was an alternative-rock outfit with a canny grasp of radio-friendly hooks who flaunted their ironic sense of humour with tongue firmly in cheek. To this day, it remains the group’s biggest-selling album and their crowning achievement, and that’s why it tops our list of the best Nickelback albums.

Must hear: Photograph

Looking for more? Check out the best Nickelback songs.