Soundtrack Review: NHL 2003
After a first crack at a fully licensed soundtrack in NHL 2002, which featured 10 songs all by Canadian artists, NHL 2003 was EA’s first fully realized collection of tracks. It has 16 songs, ranging from nu-metal to pop punk to hard rock to post-grunge, including some established big-name artists, a couple old favourites, and at least one band that barely seems to have actually existed. This soundtrack is also one of their most beloved; when I did a poll three years ago asking people to choose their favourite, it ranked second behind only NHL 06. Does it live up to the hype, or is the nostalgia factor carrying it?
Blindside - “Pitiful”
Our first European entry in the series comes from Swedish Christian post-hardcore group Blindside. “Pitiful” is a lot more screamy and emotional than you almost ever hear in these games, and - as will be a theme on this soundtrack - the self-pitying lyrical content doesn’t exactly fit the vibe of “fun sports game.” Choice lines include “As I hammered those nails into your beautiful hands, your eyes still try to search for mine,” and “My soul is dying.” Maybe this is what Markus Naslund and Peter Forsberg were into, but more likely this is an awkward first attempt to include some Scandinavian artists. 5/10
Celldweller - “Stay With Me (Unlikely)”
Review of the first 30 seconds: A fun fusion of metal and electronica, “Stay With Me (Unlikely)” may be derivative of bands like Korn but it’s well-executed and brings a lot of what I find most charming about this era of hard rock. This gets me fired up to play some early 2000s NHL.
Review of the song immediately after the first 30 seconds: I wish I had never been born. Why is he rapping? Why is he whine-moaning like that? Why is he singing in falsetto? Why is he doing the “Down With the Sickness” noises? Why did he write a wrestling entrance riff and turn it into a song about begging a girl not to leave him? Ugh. 4/10
Celldweller “Switchback”
Cuttin' you up with razor blade
Chokin' you on them words you said
Keepin' you up in front o' me
And the Celldweller is unafraid (Hey-argh)
If this track was instrumental I’d be pretty into it in as one of those NHL Hitz type adrenaline bumps; it’s well-produced and does the thing it’s going for very competently, but god these vocals really are just a nightmare. I’ve been playing some NHL 23 lately and Celldweller were definitely ahead of their time - they sound more like the hyper-polished cyber-metal on that soundtrack than most of the nu-metal that pops up in the early 2000s. 5/10
Dead Star Hotel “Frustrated”
I can find practically no evidence that this band ever existed. I think they were called Floodnine for a bit and contributed two songs to TV movies, changed their name, got on NHL 2003, and then evaporated into thin air. This track is a pretty good illustration of why. It plods along angstily for three minutes, that’s it. One thing I do like about this era of hard rock is that it simultaneously encouraged bands to write the most braindead “I am mad!” lyrics imaginable while also forcing them to come up with creative electronica-infused bridges or codas to sound up to date. Appropriately, the one here is half-assed and lasts for about fifteen seconds. Apologies to the Dead Star Hotel stans out there. 4/10
Default - "Deny"
Nickelback, by far the most successful Canadian rock band of the 2000s, somehow did not appear in an NHL game until NHL 10. Thankfully our friends in Vancouver band Default stepped in to fill the void: “Deny” was co-written and co-produced by Chad Kroeger himself, who originally discovered the band and took them under his wing. After listening to the song and reading that, I checked to see if he performed guest vocals on the track. He did not, which means he was sitting in the booth watching his buddy from Default do an almost exact impression of his voice.
“Deny” begins with an unbearable acoustic intro before basically becoming a butt rock Pearl Jam tribute. The last three minutes are tolerable but pretty boring. 4/10
Default “Slow Me Down”
This one’s fine. Again, I’m not a big Pearl Jam fan so maybe I’m off the mark, but this track reminds me of the later PJ singles you’d hear on rock radio in the late 2000s that were lighter and more alt-rock. One thing I’d bet that they do a lot better than Default is production - that buzzy distorted guitar mush throughout stinks and takes away any dynamics the song could have. C’mon Chad. Another thing they definitely borrow from Nickelback is the country twang on the vocal melodies, but I don’t hate it here.
The album “Deny” and “Slow Me Down” appear on, The Fallout, featured a track called “Wasting My Time” which has over 60M Spotify listens, and the lead singer has become a successful country artist. Good for them. 6/10
Dragpipe - “Simple Minded”
This is pure soundtrack filler. It’s fine. Better to have more menu music than less, and it fits the bill of a hockey game just fine. There’s like two seconds of glitchiness before the final chorus which is a fun detail I guess. The gist of the song is the singer goes on about how simple minded he is over a repetitive power chord riff that doesn’t contradict him for three minutes.
These guys got a record deal from Interscope on the strength of their live act, put this out as their debut single, toured with Filter, got dropped, and then broke up. That’s not a unique career path among NHL bands. They were known for having three guitarists, which is kind of cool? 5/10
Gob - “I’ve Been Up These Steps”
Finally, some good fucking music. This is my favourite Gob song. “I Hear You Calling” might be more iconic, “Oh! Ellin” might be catchier, but this guitar riff, for how simple it is, just does it for me and I’m excited to hear it again after each chorus. More than that, though, I think this one flows start to back really well, just very strong craft here. Not the most ambitious song ever, but a winner. 8/10
Gob - “Sick With You”
The forgotten Gob NHL song, for a reason. A commenter last week pointed out that “It’s Only Me” by the Barenaked Ladies was the first song about crankin’ it to appear on an NHL game, and we didn’t have to wait long for another one. This one starts off strong with implied masturbation and keeps the energy up throughout with an extended metaphor of how longing and lusting after a girl can feel like an illness. You know, hockey stuff. Musically, it’s a fine skate-punk song, and the vocal delivery puts across the sweaty clinginess of the lyrics well, but this one is not nearly as catchy as their other contributions. 6/10
Greenwheel “Strong”
Replacement-level early 2000s alternative rock. The moaning verse over atmospheric guitar trope was never a favourite of mine, but I do hand it to him that he sells the grunge chorus against all odds. Once again the lyrics are in the angsty pathetic relationship lane, with this one being essentially a self-pep-talk not to give into the easy temptation of abusive lust, even when you are on the verge of your lover’s embrace. I don’t know what kind of relationship drama was going on in the EA Vancouver office to inspire these picks.
That said, I love that the pre-chorus is the singer going “Hold on… I think I just realized something…” Really draws you into the world of the song. 5/10
Jimmy Eat World - “Sweetness”
This is the most iconic NHL song ever, and for good reason. The whole thing is glorious cathartic nonsense all the way through, mindless brilliant Wooooahhhhs with sugary sweet production and great performances.
“Sweetness” was originally recorded for Jimmy Eat World’s 1998 classic Clarity and discarded, and while that version is also great (and I like that record more than Bleed American) the song is elevated by the shameless, almost vindictive poppiness the band adopted after being tossed aside by Capitol Records for their lack of commercial success. I love the smaller touches of jangled guitar and filtered drums during the pauses in the verse, the keyboard on the bridge… what more could you ask for? Woah-oh-oh-oh-oh
Jimmy Eat World have never appeared in an NHL game since, despite Futures having plenty of tracks on it that would have fit NHL 2005 pretty well, as the countless early 240p Youtube shootout goal compilation videos set to “Pain” would attest. Nonetheless, “Sweetness” will always make them hockey legends. 10/10
M.ill.ion “Showstopper”
A brainless, generic Google Translate hair metal revival track that asks the question “What if Ratt were Swedish?”. These guys get in on the general relationship trouble theme of the soundtrack, but in their own 1980s-aping way: “She’s a showstopper, but she’s breaking my heart!” Wow! 3/10
Papa Roach “She Loves Me Not”
Yet another angsty butt-rock break-up song. The stuttering guitar riff is awkward and the lyrics are brutal. Usually in this genre you can kind of ignore what the guy is singing, but the way the instruments constantly cut out puts a lot of emphasis on Mr. Roach’s poetry. In a bad way. For example:
When I see her eyes look into my eyes
Then I realize that she could see inside my head
Or
Over the past five years I have shed my tears
I have drank my beers and watched my fears fly away
Three minutes of “I’m so fucked up life is so unfair I don’t deserve her because I’m so messed up!” would maybe be tolerable if the song was better but, well, it isn’t. I would recommend that you not look up the cover art for its album, Lovehatetragedy. 3/10
Queens of the Stone Age “No One Knows”
One of those tracks that just feels stupid to review. Remember that South Park episode where the Detroit Red Wings show up and beat the crap out of the kids' peewee hockey team? That's kind of the vibe of this song showing up on the NHL 2003 soundtrack. This is, like, an actual song, one of the best rock songs of the past 25 years. It's sleazy, catchy, airtight, perfectly performed, and the way it progresses into the amazing bridge and guitar solo is unbeatable. Dave Grohl’s drum part is unreal and one of my favourites to play along with (although “A Song for the Dead” is better). 10/10
Trapt "Headstrong"
Last week I polled my Twitter followers on a simple question - “Headstrong - yea or nay?” 69% of voters, over 2300 people, registered their support for Trapt’s signature hit.
I don’t care. I’ll take on anyone. It sucks. It’s not because it’s nu-metal, it’s not because of their politics or whatever, it just sucks. I usually have a very high tolerance for stuff like this, but this is just so empty of any craft or feeling; it’s just a WWE-optimized mess. The stop-start guitar riff is ugly and disjointed, the clean verses are out of place filler, the vocals are mixed way too high, the chorus is clunky and awkward. On top of all that, it’s almost five minutes long. It sounds like a genre rapidly running out of gas. I don’t get it. My girlfriend says it’s because I never watched Naruto AMVs on Youtube in 2006. Maybe that’s true.
Trapt’s bassist is named Peter Charell. 2/10
Treble Charger “Hundred Million”
Treble Charger’s final NHL game contribution, “Hundred Million” was a bit of an alt-rock hit in Canada, fuelled by a video featuring cameos from Gob, Avril Lavigne, and Sum 41. If I have the lyrics right, it’s a fun (and really mean) concept for a song - “If there was a national vote on how annoying you are, the electoral consensus would be that you suck.” This is a lot more aggressive than the other stuff of theirs we’ve heard, and to be honest I like these guys a lot more as a power pop group than a Sum 41-type pop-punk act. Maybe the band agreed, since they split after this record (although they do still occasionally perform, as I found out like two days after they played a show in my city). These guys did have legit song-writing chops, so I shouldn’t have been so surprised to find out that lead singer Greig Nori would go on to produce and co-write one of the best NHL soundtrack songs ever (which we’ll see next week). 6/10
I think my generous assessment of the NHL 2003 soundtrack, to borrow a phrase from my EliteProspects colleagues, would be that it’s high-ceiling. “Sweetness” and “No One Knows” are two of the best songs that ever appeared in any of these games, and it’s no surprise that they give a lot of shine to a set of tracks that contains a lot of forgettable mediocre to crummy butt rock and nu-metal. I can’t imagine a lot of fans get a nostalgic tear in their eye when they hear “Showstopper” or “Simple Minded” or “Frustrated,” but maybe I’m wrong. I get that whiny, pathetic angst is par for the course in the genres featured here, but even by that standards there really is an unbelievable amount of it on this game. NHL 2003 is the late 2010s Oilers, with McDavid and Draisaitl and… not a lot else.
Onto our superlatives…
Most Valuable Player: “Sweetness”
Come on, it’s “Sweetness.”
Aleksander Barkov Award: “I’ve Been Up These Steps”
Gob picks up another Barkov award here. If “Sweetness” and “No One Knows” are McDavid and Draisaitl, this track is Nuge.
Healthy Scratch: “Showstopper”
“Headstrong” is crummier but at least it fits the vibe. Butt rock versus cock rock, you could say. Can’t imagine anybody would miss this one.
If you’ve been absolutely seething with rage reading my takes here, you can register your own opinion by following the link below and rating the songs yourself in our community vote:
Rate the NHL 2003 Songs
Here are the community ratings for NHL 2002:
Next week… everyone will come from miles around to witness NHL 2004