I must say, I am not the biggest Sum 41 fan, I guess mall punk is somewhat out of trend, but when I heard “Does This Look Infected ?”, I had to think back and admit this four Canadians have a good taste for music, are able to play damn catchy good songs, even tough someone say they have no talent. Who knows? The album features 12 tracks, and I will tell you, expect for a couple of tunes, forget what you heard on this band’s previous works. The new album, from the Misfits-isque artwork to the songs, is very influenced by metal: the opening “The Hell Song” might not show this, but as you go on and on with the tracks ( “Over My Head”, “Still Waiting”, “A.N.I.C.”, “Mr Amsterdam”, “No Brains”) you will get to hear the new side of Sum 41: infectious metal riffs and almost screams put this record on the top of my surprises this year. The tunes are not poppy ( expect “All Messed Up”, “My Direction” ), they are interesting and finally the lyrics are not dumb. “Billy Spleen”, “Hooch” and “Hyper-Insomnia-Para-Condroid” close the album in the proper way: especially, in the last song “Hooch”, after the bridge, we can hear some quite angry screams that are catchy and very well done - I hope this band will play more like this way in the future. The album is not a real revelation, I would not dare to say that, but is what I’d call a good surprise. The package also features a bonus DVD which is full of extra goodies, and it has two songs from Sum 41’s side project “Pain For Pleasure”: very metal! Not to mention, there are tons of videos taken from Sum41’s life on the road, shows, interviews and other things, as the Tommy Lee scenes. The DVD also features bonus stuff as songs from Autopilot Off and a band called No Warning:check out this band, they rock hard.| carlo@staff.truepunk.com