Sum 41: Out For Blood
The platinum-selling, Juno-winning hard rock veterans are back in ferocious form on this advance single from a seventh album. Jackhammer drumming, searing guitar, and intense vocals draw real blood.
By Kerry Doole
Sum 41 - "Out For Blood" (Hopeless Records): It is hard to believe this Ajax, Ontario, hard rock meets punk band has been around for 23 years. For a while, the primary focus on the band seemed to be on frontman Deryck Whibley's personal life, including his previous marriage to Avril Lavigne, but the emphasis is now back on the music.
Their previous album, 2016's 13 Voices, was something of a comeback record, and three years of intensive touring has rejuvenated the group.
A seventh full-length, Order In Decline, will be released July 19 via Hopeless Records. The press bio terms it "Sum 41's heaviest and most aggressive album to date," and this first single substantiates the claim. Jackhammer drumming and searing guitar work in lockstep, there is some insane shredding from Dave Brownsound halfway through, and Whibley is in full-throated fine form. He reportedly produced, engineered, and mixed the album in his home studio.
Expect some intense lyrical fodder on the record, with Whibley explaining that "it's very hard not to have feelings about everything that's going on in the world."
Sum 41 begins a US tour in Salt Lake City on April 27, running to May 26, followed by a second leg, July 12-28, as co-headliners of the Rockstar Energy Drink DISRUPT fest tour. Dates here
Links
Publicity: Paula Danylevich, Hype Music
Aya NakamuraMarion Gomez/Billboard France