The internet has given Nickelback a really hard time, hasn’t it?
I mean, they’ve basically been the resident punching bag of the music industry for years now. Hell, people call Florida Georgia Line the Nickelback of country music (and not because they have the same producer).
Anything that is relatively popular but just generic, vanilla, a bit corny and overall, pretty lame…. just insert the Nickelback comparison.
That being said, don’t act like you weren’t getting down to “How You Remind Me” in 2001.
Anyways Nickelback seems to be getting their redemption arc. Maybe it’s because of TikTok or just because people refuse to have a popular opinion, but this once-hated band is getting some love.
I, for one, am all for this because I never really disliked Nickelback. Probably because I used to watch WWE religiously, and their song “Burn It To The Ground” was the Raw theme song for a hot sec.
Well, I want to add another reason to list of why you should actually like Nickelback, and that’s their cover of The Charlie Daniels Band’s classic “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
The cover and music video are absolutely wild, and I am totally obsessed with it.
One, the whole thing is animated, and not enough music videos are animated.
Also, the singer sounds more like one the Devil’s demons than one of Johnny’s friends. It’s so weird to hear the song very firmly placed in the rock genre because it is one of the most iconic country songs of all time.
The loud, intense music paired with the distorted voice effect every time the Devil speaks, I’m not gonna lie, made me a little nervous how the song was going to end.
Like, I know Johnny wins and is all good, but was I completely certain? Not totally.
Nickelback also changed some of the lyrics, so now instead of a fiddle battle, the pair were duking it out using guitars. Obviously, the rippin’ fiddle work is much better, but the guitars are still pretty badass, too.
One of my strongest opinions about the original “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” is that the Devil actually should have won and claimed Johnny’s soul. What can I say? His performance was just superior.
And I’m glad to say that this version is no different. The Devil playing a two-necked guitar while demons screeched in the background. Incredible.
This cover is so much fun, and it’s such a cool new take on a very well-known song.
It’s also not the first rock band to cover the Charlie Daniels classic.
We saw Primus do it, although, a little closer to the original:
We saw Korn do it too:
