Nickelback: 'Dark Horse'

The Bermuda Triangle, the origins of Stonehenge and the lost city of Atlantis have nothing on the mystery that is Nickelback. Since 1995 the Canadian band have churned out five albums of post-grunge anthems, each of which has sold by the bucket-load, and conquered the airwaves with the bafflingly huge singles 'How You Remind Me' and 'Rockstar'. Chad Kroeger's band may have the collective personality of a damp dish cloth, but their ludicrously earnest ballads and daft stompers have cornered the commercial rock market and pummelled it into submission.

This sixth outing finds the group working with Robert John "Mutt" Lange, a man well-versed in making blockbuster records as the producer of Shania Twain's Come On Over. However, it's Lange's work with hairy '80s rockers Foreigner and Def Leppard which clearly caught the attention of Nickelback, who've abandoned their usual grungey sludge and entered the world of cock rock. You have been warned.

The result is a mixture of foul tunes and gross misogyny that makes this disc a prime contender for worst album of the year. Opener 'Something In Your Mouth' sums up the record's sheer awfulness in three and a half minutes. Based around a barrage of rehashed metal riffs, it features Kroeger performing a Limp Bizkit-style rap in the chorus, but incredibly that isn't the worst part of the song. That crown goes to the frontman's lecherous lyrics about a "hottie" with a "million dollar body". Lines such as: "Dirty little lady with the pretty pink thong, every sugar daddy hittin' on her all night long" are simply beyond parody.

Kroeger, a man who has all the sex appeal of Margaret Thatcher in lingerie, insists on returning to the subject of women on 'Next Go Round' ("I wanna go until the neighbours all complain"), 'S.E.X' ("Maybe in the parking lot, better bring your friend") and 'Shakin' Hands', which takes great pleasure in telling the tale of a young girl caught selling her body for cash. Alongside the outdated sexual politics, Dark Horse also features a glut of typically soulless Nickelback chuggers. Kroeger does his best constipated-on-the-toilet vocals on 'Never Gonna Be Alone', while the country-twinged closer 'This Afternoon', which features corny bar room sound effects, is a sub-Kid Rock abomination.

Worst of all, there's nothing on Dark Horse to suggest Nickelback's continuing success (27 million album sales and counting) will end here. They still know how to polish their melodies for commercial radio and a certain audience who consider draining beer kegs and visiting strip clubs to be the height of sophistication will be satisfied. For everyone else, however, the mystery of Nickelback looks no nearer to being solved.