Nickelback April 16, 2009

Since it rolled out of Alberta some 13 years ago, Nickelback has been hit-making, multi-platinum concern whose last album, 2005's All The Right Reasons is one of the most successful of the century, and has stoked great expectations for the quartet's sixth album, Dark Horse. A lesser group might rest on its proverbial laurels and assume the world is anxiously waiting for it, but Nickelback -- Chad Kroeger, his brother and bassist Mike Kroeger, guitarist Ryan Peake and drummer Daniel Adair -- still feel like a new album is a fresh opportunity to prove themselves.

Their latest, Dark Horse, is an 11-track survey of everything the group has done so well to this point -- fist-pumping anthems, grinding rockers, soaring power ballads, heart-wringing romanticism, choruses that stick in your ears after the first listen and hooks so big they practically boomerang through the songs.