They're not bad, they're actually pretty talented. The worst you can say is that they're "safe" or "boring". The actual problem with Nickelback is that they were just super overplayed on the radio for a solid decade. They played on rock stations, pop stations, alternative, even the country stations in my area played their stuff from time to time. You couldn't get away from them. Soon they'll be in the classic rock stations (if they aren't already, I don't listen to a lot of radio anymore).