Soundtrack Review: NHL 2004

You're always playing all of the same songs over and over again

This is part three of the NHL Soundtrack project. Here’s where you can find NHL 2002 and NHL 2003.

A lot of hockey fans point to the soundtracks of NHL games as musical awakenings that introduced them to bands or even genres of music that they still love to this day. It makes sense; these relatively short selections of songs play over and over again, so any kid who played dozens to hundreds of hours of one of these games was exposed to alternative rock, punk, and metal that they otherwise might never have heard. That’s a big reason I decided to write this series — a chance to look back on these foundational tracks with fresh eyes.

For me, that game is NHL 2004, which I received on CD-rom when I was about eight years old. It was my first introduction to any rock music that wasn’t from 1995 or earlier, let alone in the sub-genres included here. I’m going to try not to let nostalgia cloud my judgement too much, but that may be impossible.

At 18 songs, the NHL 2004 soundtrack is a logical step forward from the previous two, but I think it also marks the end of an era in a way not only for these games but for alternative rock in general. This is the last we see of nu-metal, and comes on the cusp of a breakthrough for emo-pop and throwback rock revival that ends up all over the next few games. In that sense, this list of songs is a bit of a time capsule. So let’s get into it.

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Adema “Co-Dependent”

Adema, formed in 2000 by the half-brother of Korn’s Jonathan Davis, got in to the nu-metal game a bit too late for stardom but just in time to drop a banger here. Simple and to the point, well-produced but not too glittery, super aggro but also very silly, I think this walks the tightrope successfully. “There's so much pressure that my life will feed us,” “This is the season where I feel so manic,” and “I see the devil ‘cause I'm not social” are all toweringly stupid lyrics but they’re delivered with such pure rage that it somehow doesn’t matter. Compared to other angsty songs in the genre that we’ve seen already, this one is less self-pitying and more supremely pissed off which makes it work (especially in this context) a lot better. More important than any of that, I think the riff rules and the hook gets the job done. If you like the sound of this song a lot and would like to commemorate it somehow, consider buying an Adema Promotional Del Taco Cup. 8/10

Alien Ant Farm - “S.S. Recognize”

Known mostly for their cover of “Smooth Criminal” and their platinum 2001 ANThology record, Alien Ant Farm were considered a bit less humourless than most of their nu-metal peers, and while their deep cut “S.S. Recognize” isn’t intentionally goofy it has a real charm to it. The song is ostensibly about a sinking ship, with what could generously be called stream of consciousness lyrics that consist of a pile of vaguely nautical-themed phrases like “Everything is wet!” and “I’m getting scurvy, bad!” and “Walk the plank!” over a groovy alternative metal tempest with slick ride bell drums in the verse and a satisfying riff. One of SongMeanings.com’s resident Alien Ant Farm scholars argues that the lyrics are actually a metaphor for heroin addiction, an interpretation I 100% reject. How could such a serious message apply to a song with this lyric:

Will bring up all the sharks
'Cause all the whales have got my suit

It’s creative, goofy but totally earnest. Some the vocals are a bit much but I like it. Also, in NHL 2004, if you created a player using any of the names of the Alien Ant Farm band members, their actual likeness would pop up. I am legitimately curious if anyone actually did that. 7/10

The Ataris - “Radio #2”

One of the lighter songs on the soundtrack, “Radio #2” is a breezy pop-punk deep cut from the Ataris’ pretty good major label debut So Long, Astoria. It’s a missive against the oppression and conformity of modern rock radio, ironic not only because of how sugary sweet the track is but because on the album it comes directly after their instant-classic cover of Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer,” an accidental top 20 single that ended up dominating modern rock radio in summer 2003. I think “Radio #2” serves an important function on the NHL 2004 soundtrack as a lighter menu track, and I’m never upset to hear it. Also, how fitting is it to have a song that goes “You’re always playing all of the same songs over and over again” on an NHL game? 7/10

Autopilot Off - “Clockwork”

“Clockwork” is pure craft. It takes exactly the turns that an up-tempo emo-tinged punk song should, with a simple but driving riff (love the electronics on it) and a totally anthemic hook. The lyrics are just kind of there, but they’re sung with such dead-set conviction that it’s actually somehow a strength that none of them stand out for better or worse. To that end, it features a melodramatic spoken-word bridge pushed so deep in the mix that you get to be like “damn, this song is so serious that there’s a spoken-word bridge” without actually having to discern whatever poetry the guy from Autopilot Off came up with. The gist of the song seems to be a pep talk along the lines of “you’ll have to make decisions, there’s no way of knowing how they’ll go, accept that there are things you can’t control”, which makes this song a kind of moodier counterpart to “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World I guess.

One thing I didn’t know about this song, which I’ve loved for about 20 years, is that it was co-written by producer Grieg Nori, who happens to be the lead singer of 2000s NHL game staple Treble Charger. I’m a big fan of the Make a Sound record, and although nothing on there is quite as good as “Clockwork,” “Blessed by a Nightmare” would have been a sick NHL game song as well and has always featured on my beer league pre-game playlists. 9/10

Avenged Sevenfold - “Chapter Four”

California metalcore band Avenged Sevenfold would become a staple both of NHL games and the mainstream metal scene in the mid-2000s, but they were paying their dues on Warped Tour and an indie label when “Chapter Four” was chosen for NHL 2004. Its selection by EA (for Madden and NASCAR as well) actually seems to have been a pretty big deal, as it apparently helped them get major-label attention.

This is the first track we’ve come across in this series that’s non-nu-metal metal, so I should admit right now that while I enjoy plenty of stuff from the genre, I’m no metalhead. From what I can gather, the album this track is taken from, Waking the Fallen, is generally considered to be the band’s strongest. To my ears, “Chapter Four” is fine but kind of unmemorable, probably in part because of its length and how the vocals are relatively deep in the mix. I’m sure metalcore fans think it rules, but it’s not for me. 6/10

Bowling for Soup - “Punk Rock 101”

“Punk Rock 101” is a silly, self-aware send-up of pop-punk clichés, from the screw-up boyfriend/wronged girlfriend template to stuff as specific as effects-heavy bridges with a “delay-ay-ay-ay-ay on the very last word-word-word-word.” There are plenty of eye-rolling tongue-in-cheek lyrics but I find it charming anyway, and unlike many of Bowling For Soup’s hits, I actually like the simple but up-tempo and catchy instrumental. “Punk Rock 101” also appeared in Backyard Wrestling: Don’t Try This at Home, a game that features multiple Insane Clown Posse members as playable characters. Unfortunately, as far as I’m aware the same is not true of NHL 2004. 7/10

Brand New - “The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows”

This was pretty much my favourite song of all time from the first time I heard it in NHL 2004 as a kid until deep into my teens. Brand New, who never turned up in an NHL soundtrack again for reasons obvious to anyone who’s heard their albums after 2003, became my all time favourite artist pretty much the day I downloaded the Deja Entendu album.

The impressionistic lyrics tell the story of a decaying marriage finally ended with an affair, with the chorus serving as the speaker’s internal monologue begging him not to kill himself despite losing everything. In other words, usual NHL game subject matter. Every section of the track is drenched in the contradiction of cruel and despicable actions with the detached and self-aware guilt that was the calling card of lead singer Jesse Lacey’s lyrics, which has made his work even more uncomfortable to listen to since allegations of sexual misconduct came to light in 2017. As a kid I was definitely not aware of any of that and just thought “Quiet Things” was the coolest thing I’d ever heard. From the opening guitar part to the thrilling wall-of-sound when the band kicks in to the duelling vocals in the chorus to the build up in the bridge to the feedback at the end, “Quiet Things” is one of the best songs that ever found its way onto one of these games, even if I can’t say I listen to it often these days. 10/10

Cinder - “Soul Creation”

Some NHL songs are purely practical - they’re not in there because they’re good, but because snippets of them in a pre-game highlight video get the adrenaline pumping. “Soul Creation” is one of them. It has a heavy chorus so good that Static-X shamelessly ripped it off, and fortunately that’s the only part that actually appears in NHL 2004 since the rest of the song is horrible. Terrible melodramatic strangled Scott-Weiland-meets-Rob-Zombie vocal delivering stupid lyrics, a generic repetitive bridge — but credit to the NHL crew for recognizing that.

Weiland himself actually discovered Cinder, and he agreed to co-write and co-produce their first album (much like how Chad Kroeger helped out NHL 2003’s Default). This probably helped get Cinder signed to a major label for their debut record Break Your Silence, and debut single “Soul Creation” was apparently a legit nu-metal hit. For some reason though, their label delayed the release of the album from 2002 to 2003, and then from 2003 to… never. If you heard this track in NHL 2004 and wanted to hear more, you were out of luck. Promotional copies were sent out, so there are some reviews and a handful of CDs floating around, but the full thing was never put out until it surprisingly landed on Spotify eighteen years later. It’s not very good. Oh well. 5/10

Deftones - “Minerva”

The core of Deftones’ music, consistent for almost three decades now, is a conflict between melodic, heavy shoegaze and aggressive alternative metal. “Minerva,” their only appearance in an NHL game, falls mostly into the former category, pushing and pulling between tentative quiet strummed guitar and a pummelling wall of sound. It may not be one of their heaviest songs in the traditional overdriven metal sense, but it sounds enormous, with a dynamic performance from singer Chino Moreno. I’m probably not the only person who became a lifelong Deftones fan because of it. 9/10

Dexter Freebish - “Falling Down”

One of two tracks from Texas power pop band Dexter Freebish, “Falling Down” is competent enough. The hook is kind of catchy, performances are fine. For a pop track it’s a bit in one ear, out the other, and I don’t really have a lot to say about it. This group was a favourite of Yoko Ono, of all people, who personally invited them to play the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s John Lennon exhibit. My girlfriend also became briefly obsessed with them when I played this track, so maybe there’s just something I’m missing. The Freebishheads out there can educate me. 5/10

Dexter Freebish - “A Life of Saturdays”

The title track of DFreeb’s 2000 Capitol debut, “A Life of Saturdays” is breezier than “Falling Down” and real straight forward - if the speaker (let’s call him Dexter) had every day off, here’s the list of fun things he would do. He would sail the seven seas, see the Mona Lisa, see the seven wonders, etc. I would like this track more if they threw in some curveballs, but the lyric is basically the bucket list of the most normal guy on earth. I feel like Bowling For Soup could have taken this concept and done something a bit more entertaining.

Mr. Freebish would take a four-year hiatus (including roughly 208 Saturdays) after releasing this record but nonetheless understood the value of hustling, forming a formal partnership with EA’s Artwerk venture that saw their music licensed to a pile of titles including Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004, Superman Returns, The Sims 2: University, and The Sims 4. It probably didn’t hurt that their A&R rep at Capitol records was… Steve Schnur, the guy in charge of the EA NHL soundtracks! Good god. This thing goes all the way to the top… 5/10

Gob - “Oh! Ellin”

It’s here that we say goodbye to our friends in Gob. After they contributed a combined five tracks to 2002 and 2003, EA gave them a one-song severance package and cast them out into the night. In revenge, Gob unleashed a virus upon thousands of hockey fans: “Oh! Ellin! What can I do? There is nothing aside from you!” repeated 19 times in the song itself, hundreds of times if you play the game long enough, thousands of times if it gets stuck in your head. And it will get stuck in your head. Oh! Ellin! It’s a simple song, not their best by any stretch, but all of the expensive-sounding production tricks suit the poppy sound and give it a boost. 7/10

Jerk - “Sucked In”

Australian act Jerk deliver an ugly, unpleasant three minutes of Marilyn Manson-aping industrial metal. Starting with a distorted, echoed “Yeeeeah” that more than once tricked me into thinking my game disc was dirty or damaged, peaking with a generic but passable riff that sounds like arcade fighting game menu music, and hitting its nadir with a horrible, repetitive hook, “Sucked In” is just awful. This track wasn’t even a single off of the band’s major label debut (and only record), so maybe they have less objectionable material out there. They broke up immediately after releasing their album When Purity is Defiled (presumably named after what they did to the NHL 2004 soundtrack), reuniting for a one-time acoustic show in 2013. They did not play this song. 1/10

Jet - “Get What You Need”

The first bit of garage rock revival on an NHL game (and definitely not the last), “Get What You Need” has some eye-rolling lines (“Now I’m in a rockin’ band/and no one has to hold my hand,” “If you got a lady friend I’ll take her to town!”) but the “so come on!!” pre-chorus works, especially the brief effects-laden guitar line that was looped and used in the loading screen of the game. It’s fine for what it is. There are some nice performances on here including a neat guitar solo which give it a bump. 7/10

Less Than Jake - “The Ghosts of Me and You”

Ska punk is not a genre that you tend to hear in NHL games, and despite coming from legends of the genre Less Than Jake, “The Ghosts of Me and You” barely qualifies. It has a lot more in common with the Get Up Kids than Streetlight Manifesto, with the brass section pitching in what could just as easily have been a guitar part. Despite not being chosen as a single from the band’s biggest commercial hit record, I really like it. My favourite part is the pre-chorus, but the whole thing works. A young Fall Out Boy toured with them when this album came out, and you can definitely hear some influence. 8/10

Living Things - “Born Under the Gun”

Another of the pre-game hype-up songs, “Born Under the Gun” was released by political glam rock act Living Things on their Black Skies in Broad Daylight CD, which is not available on streaming services. “Born Under the Gun” edges onto the punk side of hard rock and glam and although it’s not most complicated song in the world, with a pretty straightforward riff and a repetitive hook, it’s elevated by a superb recording done by the late Steve Albini, with incredibly forceful guitars and that trademark drum sound. It somehow almost helps that the lyrics on this track are basically indecipherable; despite what I think is meant to be an anti-war message, other than the part where he yells “Under the gun!” the words just sound like random phonics, including to the bridge where it kind of sounds like he’s yelling “she’s a Jack Black destroyer!!!” 8/10

Modern Day Zero (Formerly Mesh StL) - “Down”

Modern Day Zero, formerly known as Mesh StL, formerly known as Mesh, were a band from St. Louis (also known as StL). They were called Mesh until 2001, when they self-released what was supposed to be their major label debut and found MTV2 success with the single “Maybe Tomorrow” - unfortunately not a cover of the Littlest Hobo theme song - finding out that there was already a band with that name. They ran with Mesh StL for three years, presumably realized that that’s a pretty awkward band name, and was reborn as Modern Day Zero (a.k.a. MDZ, not to be mistaken with Michael Del Zotto) in 2004. “Down” was their last release under the Mesh StL banner but appears on their MDZ debut. Not confusing at all.

A commenter last week took issue with how uncharitable I was towards “butt rock,” a pejorative for a certain type of post-grunge hard rock that was popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, characterized by cocktail of simple angsty lyrics, heavy riffs, and poppy, modern rock radio friendly songwriting. Where that nickname came from is disputed, but my preferred explanation is that it derives from stations that would brag about playing “Nothing. But. Rock.” in that time period.

It’s true that there’s a lot of absolute trash in that genre, including some of the bands that Modern Day Zero toured with, like Puddle of Mudd and Hoobastank. But I would consider “Down” to be basically the perfect butt rock song. At its core it’s a simple hard rock track but it’s sneakily harmonically rich, taking advantage of the full bag of 2000s studio tricks and layering on a really compelling guitar performance culminating in an uncomplicated but effective solo. It has a lot in common with “Clockwork,” including terrific craftsmanship. Perfect hockey song. 9/10

Vendetta Red - “Shatterday”

Vendetta Red were a wordy and provocative Seattle post-hardcore act that found a bit of success in the short window where a wordy and provocative post-hardcore act could reach something approaching a mainstream audience. The record “Shatterday” appears on, Between the Never and the Now features songs called “Accident Sex” and “Lipstick Tourniquets,” and is possibly the most 2003 album ever to exist.

This song is pretty inextricable from the role that it played in the game itself, where it was the secret hidden track that you only heard when you won the Stanley Cup in Dynasty Mode (the franchise mode precursor focused on organization-building and office decoration). After an initial celebration, the team would come together for their photo with the Cup, and “Shatterday” would kick in as the camera focused on each player and highlighted their postseason stats:

I said in last week’s piece that part of the charm of “Sweetness” is its cathartic nonsense, and even though “Sweetness” is a way better song, “Shatterday” blows it totally out of the water in that one regard. It’s performed with such conviction that you almost get choked up seeing the slightly cursed looking PS2 player models while these completely incomprehensible lyrics play:

Scars, they cut into you
Blisters, rose-colored hue
Mayday, we're going down
These mescaline memories are morose
Your kerosene company's comatose

Please try to contain your emotions Dan

I showed that video to my girlfriend and she thought it was hilarious. 7/10

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Every NHL game fan has their favourite soundtrack, and this is mine. To me, this is the best of everything these collections are capable of: the tracks are energetic, they’re varied, they give a snapshot of where alternative rock was like at the time, and they provide an entry point to a lot of amazing bands ranging from big names to hidden gems. You get some great pop-punk, fun nu-metal, bouncy power pop, energizing hard rock, and also “Sucked In” by Jerk. The team did a really impressive job of assembling this soundtrack, putting in the work to find a lot of tracks that weren’t even singles but fit the billing perfectly. It’s good music folks.

Onto the superlatives…

Most Valuable Player: “The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows”

As much as I’d really rather not give an award to Jesse Lacey, this is really the only choice here for me.

Aleksander Barkov Award: “Down”

If I had to pick an all-time most-underrated NHL song it’d probably be this one. Unfortunately I listened to two of Mesh/Mesh StL/Modern Day Zero’s albums and didn’t like any of their other songs. Oh well.

Healthy Scratch: “Sucked In”

Sucked iIiIiiNnnnahhh

We’ve had great response to the community polls, so please feel free to rate these songs yourself:

Rate the NHL 2004 Songs

Here are the community ratings for NHL 2003:

Next week… NHL 2005 brings the sunshine in the morning