New SUM 41 Album: ’13 Voices’

SUM 41 are proud to announce their new album, 13 Voices, due out October 7th via Hopeless Records. The ten-track album marks the band’s first LP in five years, following up 2011’s Screaming Bloody Murder, which featured the Grammy Nominated song “Blood In My Eyes”. It also remarks the comeback of Dave Baksh.

The album starts with the odd ‘A Murder of Crows’, with an intro of over a minute. It might have been a good slow instrumental, but singer Deryck Whibley opens without remorse. It’s quite clear SUM 41 will continue the punkrock as it supposed to be in the 70’s and 80’s. Not to much melody, but rough with a touch of metal. Quite the opposite of ‘Screaming Bloody Murder’ (2011), which was a brilliant album.

‘Goddamn I’m Dead Again’ reminds us of the beginning of Green Day, with a nice punk-version of The Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’ mixed through. An interesting sound is to be heard in titletrack ’13 Voices’, which definitely shows the influences of Metallica in SUM 41. The ending though is melodic but messy, to messy to make it a perfect track. Single ‘War’ is just one of those 13 in a dozen punkrockballads. Not a bad track, but obvious why it never did hit the charts.

’13 Voices’ ain’t a bad album, definately not, but nonetheless it won’t become a classic. SUM 41 might have tried to fast after Baksh return. Remember, the album after he left, ‘Underclass Hero’ is considered the worst album of the band, probably caused by the stress after his departure. The return nonetheless might have caused another storm in the band, causing the last album not the band’s best. So be it. (6/10) (Hopeless)