How can I take a Nickelback progression and make it more metal?

Hey everyone. Thanks for stopping in to give a listen and a read to this week’s post.

I was in a group recently that was looking to work towards playing gigs with more popular type of music and we were using Nickelback as a band to emulate. Why Nickelback? Well, whether you like them or not, they’re one of the most successful bands of all time. They must have found something that people like if they’ve continued to be and grow such an enormous fanbase around the world.

I started listening to a bunch of their songs – notably the hits that show up when you search them on the various streaming sites (YouTube, Spotify, etc.) – and I found that quite a few songs contain the progression Am C F Dm (or vi I IV ii if you want to just know the chord/scale degrees). With this discovery, I went to work writing a few songs of my own.

Now, I did make a few straight up motorbike/party songs that are more in line with “Burn It To The Ground” and the like, but this one I wanted to add a little bit of traditional metal stuff to, more for my own sake than for anyone else’s.

This one is a demo track called “Nail In The Coffin” that I used to pitch to my group.

Listen here:

I tuned to Drop-C (low to high – CGCFAD) so this is actually Gm Bb Eb Cm for the chorus. Here’s the form I used:

• Verse – vocals
• Chorus – without vocals
• Verse – vocals
• Chorus – vocals
• Verse – variation – vocals
• Chorus – vocals
• Bridge – no vocals
• Solo
• Chorus x3 fading out on the 3rd time – vocals

This is a pretty cut and dry formula you can use for any song, and it is a common formula that Nickelback and other big name artists use. More often than not, if it’s on the radio, it either doesn’t have a guitar solo, or the solo is very short. I kept this in mind for this solo section; there’s a singable solo that doesn’t last long so people can get back to singing along/listening to the vocals.

Speaking of the vocals, they were part of the traditional metal I took and placed in the song. The vocals I made for this song are not in line with the Nickelback style. The same can be said for the lyrics, which are notably not using women as objects or riddled with sexism/misogyny. I didn’t realize this before reading a bunch of Nickelback lyrics, but they really play up the 80’s hair band vibe of making women the object, target, and trophy of many of their songs. I’ll be sharing two other tracks I wrote in the next while to get into their party song style like “Burn It To The Ground” in all styles including vocals, but the lyrics are focusing more on making little stories without objectifying women while still sticking to Nickelback’s go-hard theme.

Let’s take a look at the lyrics for this “Nail In The Coffin”:

Lyrics

Verse

The fire in your eye is out
The light of the day has left your face
You’re the only thing that I think about
The only one that knows this place

Between the sheets of time I’ll meet you there, I’ll meet you there

Verse

The sound of the wind reminds me of you
As it slowly blows away
Every care I had every memory
What I’d give to hear you once again, once again

Chorus

Oh why did I have to be so hard
I pushed away your heart
Everything I did was a nail in the coffin

And why did I have to be so bad
You gave everything you had
Everything I did was a nail in the coffin

Verse

If I never find the way
I still have what I would say
I finally know that the problem was me
I’m sorry that it took me so long to see

If I had another lifetime
I’d find a way to pick the right line
But I’m stuck with the decisions I made
I’m sorry I was always so afraid

Chorus

Oh why did I have to be so hard
I pushed away your heart
Everything I did was a nail in the coffin

And why did I have to be so bad
You gave everything you had
Everything I did was a nail in the coffin

Thoughts on the lyrics

These lyrics are kind of a traditional love-song of loss and self reflection. They aren’t really about my life, but more a story that I created for the song and the feeling of the music. As usual, I was aiming to make them open enough that they could be wide open for many interpretations from anybody depending on their mood when they are listening/reading the words. I ended up writing these words from beginning to end while listening back to the music I recorded.

As stated many times before, I generally write the music first and the lyrics after recording everything else. It feels like I have more room to breathe that way with my creative mind. You may or may not work the same way; some people write the music to the lyrics, some people write it all as they go, some people write all of it with a group, some people do it all individually. There are no right or wrong ways as long as you feel at least content with your content (English is silly).

Parting words

I hope you’ve found some good information in this and you enjoyed the track. I’m going to be doing a few Nickelback/popular style songs coming up, as well as a video recording or two me playing through some tracks from my band Inner Urge’s upcoming album titled “Consume and Waste” coming out this Thursday, October 28th, 2022.

I still have some slots open for lessons if you’d like to check out my services and contact me to book your lesson. You can always email me at [email protected] to contact me directly. I’m happy to provide any answers I can and it’s always fun to communicate with fans, peers, students, and everyone who participates in my weekly song and blog writing.

Let me know what you’re interested in learning about and I’ll do my best to write a blog post about it and get going on putting a lesson plan together for you to learn more in depth about what you’re interested in.

Thank you for your time and you have yourselves an amazing week.

All the best,

– Matt