Released:
Rating:
Sum 41 sound like good ol’ Sum 41, but older and louder, angrier and with a hell of a fire under them once again.
Label: Hopeless Records
Released: October 7th 2016
Rating: ★★★
What happens when you want to get away from everything and start again? Well, according to Deryck Whibley, you fake your own death – metaphorically of course. ‘13 Voices’ is his and the band’s clean slate after finding himself fighting for his life after a downward spiral, and he takes no prisoners.
Despite the whole album jangling slowly to life with a string section in tow, the moment ‘Goddamn I’m Dead Again’ storms to life, it’s clear: Sum 41 are recharged. Deryck calls out how quickly he was abandoned as things spiralled (‘You’re Dead to Me’) and ‘Fake My Own Death’ ferociously handles that perceived rebirth, with ‘Break My Chains’ an optimistically spat declaration of new starts. ‘War’ stands apart, a soaring confessional stream of consciousness asking, “What am I fighting for?”
When they’re not unravelling these feelings lyrically, they’re leaping into indulgent guitar solos like they’re making up for lost time. It just clicks.
A lot has happened in five years, changes in the band and in life, and while there are some moments on the album that mill around and fall by the wayside, Sum 41 sound like good ol’ Sum 41, but older and louder, angrier and with a hell of a fire under them once again. Welcome back. Heather McDaid
