Heaven :x: Hell - Sum 41
Track List:
Waiting On A Twist Of Fate
Landmines
I Can’t Wait
Time Won’t Wait
Future Primitive
Dopamine
Not Quite Myself
Bad Mistake
Johnny Libertine
Radio Silence
Preparasi A Salire
Rise Up
Stranger In These Times
I Don’t Need Anyone
Over The Edge
House Of Liars
You Wanted War
Paint It Black
It’s All Me
How The End Begins
This release caught my eye today when I was looking at the new releases.
Story time:
In the summer of 2001 I was an 8th grader and I embarked on an overnight trip with my middle school band to Gatlinburg, Tn. We stopped somewhere in the foothills of NC for lunch on the way there and I snuck off to the Walmart near the parking lot we stopped at. I went to the CD section and there was a new release of the album All Killer, No Filler by Sum 41. I had heard the lead single Fat Lip on MTV prior to this and it was my first discovery of pop punk. I purchased this CD and listened to it over and over on the trip and then for several months. I did at some point pick up their first EP and I had heard some of their singles from later more heavy albums but when they tried to go metal I found it a bit cheesy given they were the goofy Canadian pop punk band I listened to when I was a kid, hell I even tried to my hair like the lead singer’s for a bit.
So, I saw this release today (their 8th album?!) and I remembered seeing a headline about a final album by the band recently, well this is it. I couldn’t help but read up on it. It’s a concept album in the sense that it is a journey of their time as a band in new music.
Heaven is the title of the first half and it is pop punk, it’s very much pop punk. It’s weird at times. The songs it reminds me of are about high school parties and rejecting authority. The band is still that age in my head, but then I realize that they are a few years older than me. The songs are juvenile and while exploring some complex ideas (loss, endings, etc…). A lot of the songs feel to me more of a performance than an expression of feeling.
Hell is the second half of the album and the one that intrigued me more. There are still a lot of the same themes, endings and break ups, I feel like the entire album is a breakup album and the band saying goodbye. But the stylistic range is there. It’s heavier and more complex musically. It’s still not Zappa but it is as good as any other recent pop rock music out there. Some of it is a lot heavier and almost true punk at times which I quite liked.
This was neat and unexpected. I probably will put some of the stuff on in the future to listen to passively. I am still a bit weirded out about how I felt like an early adopter of this band and now they are saying goodbye even with me missing most of their career. I am now a bit curious as to the rest of their catalog and may explore that.
