Nickelback: Hate to Love

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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Last year, the rock band Nickelback finally was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Now, we have a documentary about them, “Hate to Love: Nickelback.”

The band is comprised of lead guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger, rhythm guitarist/keyboardist/backing vocalist Ryan Peake, bassist Mike Kroeger, and drummer Daniel Adair (there have been several drummers over the years).

Nickelback formed in 1995. Its sound has been described as grunge, post-grunge, hard rock, pop rock, alternative rock, alternative metal, and nu metal. The group has put out ten studio albums – from “Curb” (1996) to “Get Rollin’ (2022).

Directed by Leigh Brooks, “Hate to Love: Nickelback” focuses on their evolution from one of the most commercially successful rock bands in the world in the 2000s to one of the most culturally reviled rock bands in the world in the 2010s.

Rotten Tomatoes ranks the doc at 43%.

One rock fan describes the band’s reputation as “fraught.” POV Magazine calls the film “a missed opportunity to say anything meaningful about the band or to defy the haters.”

Collider says, “Leigh Brooks’ documentary won’t change your mind about Nickelback …” Another viewer termed it a “puff piece,” but admitted it was “inherently quite interesting.”

My pal David Fear of Rolling Stone observed, “To call ‘Hate to Love’ a vanity project is giving it too much credit. It is merely something that follows a tried-and-true formula, and uses it to tell the story of a highly divisive band that could really be the story of any band, or every band.” 

As for me, Nickelback, I can take them or leave them.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com