Jokester Canadian rockstars Nickelback haven’t been shy about their love for heavy metal recently. First, they teased the extra-metallic bit of a new song prior to its release; then, they told us that Sevendust are the one band that they never wanted to follow.
Now, in a new interview with Rock Sverige, guitarist Ryan Peake discussed the band’s varied tastes and his love for metal. The interviewer asked Peake about the possibility of a Slayer covers album, to which he replied.
“I don’t know if it would be something we all could agree on because we are all have our different likes and dislikes when it comes to music. Mike’s [Kroeger, bass] is really heavy and I like Slayer so I get that. I think we could probably agree on doing a heavy covers album or something like that.”
Shortly after, he names the band he could see Nickelback covering. The last one seems like a stretch to me, but power to them.
“Maybe do a Testament, Slayer, Meshuggah album? I don’t know.”
This isn’t the first time that the idea of Nickelback doing a heavy covers album has been floated. In a 2019 interview, Mike Kroeger discussed the idea of a Slayer covers album and praised bands like Animals as Leaders, Gojira and Lamb of God.
“I would do a Slayer cover album if I could. That’s where my heart lies. There are just never enough hours in the day to do everything, but let’s just say I wouldn’t count it out.”
Peake discussed his introduction to heavy metal in the interview. Pretty legit!
“The one I went to and the one I wanted to go to, was Iron Maiden. I couldn’t make the Somewhere in Time tour, so the next time they came around I caught the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son tour and there was a little band opening for them called Guns N’ Roses. They were supporting Appetite for Destruction and I was just getting into both bands and it was just so great. We would then go see a bunch of different bands like Metallica and what not, but I remember seeing Testament, Megadeth and Judas Priest on the Painkiller tour. I loved Testament’s Practice What You Preach and Rust in Peace was like, “C’mon!” Those are the things that stick out in my head. Life changing, it really was.”