STACK #264 October 2026

MUSIC FEATURE

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SUN GODS T he critics love to diss ’em, but you can’t Nickelback defy the critics to release their 11th album.

Nickelback

the single Rattle the Cage , featuring Mötley Crüe guitarist John 5. “This album has every side of the band on it,” Chad Kroeger says. “There are songs that hit as hard as anything we’ve ever done, songs that take chances, and songs that remind us why we’ve been doing this together for so long. “ Rattle the Cage felt like the perfect way to kick the door

deny the facts. Nickelback have had more than ten billion streams, sold more than 50 million albums, and consistently played to packed crowds around the world. When Ryan Reynolds inducted the band into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2023, he added, “Granted, there have been 100 million memes, too.” Accepting the honour, lead singer Chad Kroeger noted “27 years of blood, sweat and tears”. The band has now sailed past three decades. And they are releasing their first album in four years, Everything Under the Sun . The album finds the band in fine rockin’ form – check out

Everything Under the Sun by Nickelback is out Oct 30 via Virgin

CHART FACT

The band’s documentary is called Hate to Love: Nickelback . HOT DOC

FUN FACT

Nickelback have had nine Top 10 albums in Australia, including the 2011 chart-topper Here and Now .

open – it has the energy we’ve been feeding off

Nickelback started out as a cover band called Village Idiot.

every night on stage.” And it shows that Nickelback remain as defiant as ever, with Chad declaring: “With backs against the

Photo credit: Lindsay Siu

Nickelback were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2023. Michael Bublé said, “The truth is, you earned it. You are an inspiration to every Canadian kid.” AWARD WATCH

wall/ Has to be the one and one for all/ We face another day/ We raise the battle call/ Rattle the cage until it falls.” Jeff Jenkins

FEEL-GOOD HITS W hen Grian Chatten, Carlos O’Connell, Dopamine Chamber , definitely sits on the eagerly awaited For the Irish band’s fifth album, the D.C. stands for Dopamine Chamber . sits on the eagerly

Grian Chatten released a solo album in 2023, Chaos for the Fly . SOLO MAN

Fontaines D.C.

Conor Curley, Tom Coll, and Conor Deegan started a band at university, they called themselves The Fontaines, taking the name from Johnny Fontane, a character in The Godfather . And when they discovered that a band in

list. And the first single, Marianne , just fuelled the hype, with NME giving it a five-star review. “The album itself is a dopamine chamber,” explains lead singer Grian Chatten. “You step inside and we test these different mind or mood-altering pieces of music on you.”

Dopamine Chamber by Fontaines D.C. is out Oct 16 via XL Recordings

America had the same name, they added the initials D.C. as a nod to their hometown – Dublin City. That was 12 years ago. Fontaines D.C. are now one of the most exciting rock bands in the world. When they visited Australia last year, reviewers hailed their “undeniably magnetic energy”, describing their performance as a “masterclass in tension and release”, with one critic stating: “We are witnessing the world’s next greatest band evolve before our eyes.” So, the band’s new album,

Asked how it differed to its predecessor, Romance , Grian replied: “I felt it would be more powerful to leave the hope out and reflect the ugliness honestly. This one needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning.” Adds bass player Conor Deegan, “Our albums have always questioned a sense of place. First Dublin, then being away from Dublin, and then trying to find the romance elsewhere. On this record, the question became: where do you escape to?” Jeff Jenkins

CHART FACT

Irish movie star Cillian Murphy loves Fontaines D.C, saying their music “has that outlaw quality, that dangerous quality... I’m just a fanboy”. FAMOUS FAN

Fontaines D.C’s last album,

2024’s Romance , hit the Australian Top 10, peaking at number six.

66 OCTOBER 2026

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