Extreme Behaviour - Hinder

Joseph Smith | 9 May 2007

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I thought I had put in a Nickelback CD upon my first listen to Hinder’s major label debut, Extreme Behaviour.

Vocalist Austin Winkler sounds just like Nickleback’s Chad Kroeger and their respective bands seem to be doing pretty much the same thing as each other.

However, Hinder have definitely kicked it up a notch or seven in going for the bad boy image – as evidenced by their crassly provocative album cover (deliberately pixelated here) – an underwear-clad woman photographed from the nose down.

It doesn’t end there, either. Unlike Nickelback’s relatively radio-friendly lyrics, Hinder’s lyrics are sexually obscene, unbridled in their anger and probably surpass even Guns ‘N’ Roses in their unashamed vulgarity.

Despite their radio-friendly Australian number one single Lips of an Angel a few months back, Hinder are trying to carve out an overtly-sexual, misogynistic bad-boy image.

In album opener Get Stoned, Winkler gives us the first of many forays into his skewed idea of romantic relationships.

“Let’s go home and get stoned,” rasps Winkler, adding, “Cos the sex is so much better when you’re mad at me…” and “…The break up is worth the make up sex you’re giving me”.

Winkler makes no attempt to actually sort out his broken relationships and search for the reasons causing this destructive behaviour. It is sad to see somebody promoting sexual relations outside of an actual functional, committed relationship as is best modelled in marriage. He seems to be satisfied with two selfish, angry people going through repetitive cycles of destructive behaviour. Winkler hates his lover’s behaviour, yet he appears to be no better himself.

Let me say now, eight of the ten tracks on this album are about dysfunctional or failed relationships. It is stunning that Winkler can keep obsessing over the same few matters yet again and again fail to find anything close to a satisfactory answer.

Christians know that Jesus is the solution to relationship problems. While that doesn’t mean Christians will have perfect relationships this side of Heaven, Jesus offers us perfect relationship with God. He also models for us love, service and other person-centeredness, which are surely tools that can be used to form better relationships amongst humans on earth.

In How Long, By the Way, Nothin Good About Goodbye and Bliss (I Don’t Wanna Know its over) Winkler touches on more common experiences in bad relationships like screaming, uncomfortable silences and the feeling of being ‘frozen, battered and bruised’. Yet each time, he deals with conflict by fighting back or turning to substance abuse.

Regret is another common feeling of Winkler’s. In Better Than Me he feels guilt, acknowledges his errors, and even bravely acknowledges that his former lover can ‘do so much better’ than him. But again, he appears oblivious as to what can be done to improve his relationships.

Track 8 is the former number one single Lips of An Ange’. It’s probably the most restrained and therefore commercial radio-friendly song on the album. That said,
Winkler sings about wrestling with the temptation of the ‘other woman’.

“Well, my girl’s in the next room, Sometimes I wish she was you,” he sings. It’s a pretty horrible sentiment, really. He also talks about how nice it is to hear his name said by the lips of this woman. It is that ‘grass is greener on the other side’ mentality, that makes the ‘other woman’ seem somehow more appealing than the person you are or should be committed to. As Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew, “I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Finally, in Shoulda, Winkler regrets not saying those three words ‘I love you’ back to his girlfriend on the phone. It seems to have caused the end of the relationship. It’s a bit odd that so much emphasis is placed on those three words in popular culture.

In Ephesians 5, Paul outlines what love between a man and a woman should be like, the man loving his wife as Christ loved the giving himself up for her. It seems highly unlikely from the lyrical evidence on Extreme Behaviour that Winkler would comprehend this meaning of love.

Extreme Behaviour is full of songs about regret at broken relationships, but sadly, there is little evidence of repentance. One wonders what a dose of grace might do.