Sum 41
Chuck

THE REVIEW

The four Canadians, after a poor start, caught everyone's attention with "All Killer No Filler," a classic pop punk album. The subsequent, much more convincing and beautiful "Does This Look Infected?" took a decidedly different and more powerful path than the previous work.

And perhaps the path that "Chuck" would take was already known and hinted at; the album's name is a dedication to Chuck Pelletier, who saved the band while they were filming for the War Child documentary.

The album cover is very beautiful.

Fortunately, the so-called songs of 30-40 seconds have been removed, making way for a much broader and well-developed tracklist.

We are no longer dealing with a carefree and cheerful album; all this is set aside for a more powerful and aggressive sound. In fact, this album is a mix of punk rock, rock, and metal. When have you ever heard of a band starting with pop punk and then turning to punk rock and metal? I would say none...

It starts with an "Intro," then moves on to the best track of the album—indeed, the entire discography—a great fast, energetic, and rightly aggressive song. Perhaps the real novelty is "We're All to Blame," a track that is at times hard and heavy and melodic in the chorus. This track was also released as a single, and I'm not surprised.

However, with "Angels With Dirty Face," the song opens with a calm, almost tired voice, in my opinion, only to become increasingly energetic and fast. You relax with "Some Say," very nice and calm, and then move on to "The Bitter End," a metal song whose drums and guitar I like a lot, especially in the long and fantastic central solo.

We take a break with "Slipping Away," not a very good song, but it's right to calm down a bit. But the tranquility doesn't last long because it picks up again at full speed with "I'm Not the One," one of my favorites on the entire album.

"Welcome to Hell" earns the title as the fastest song, both in terms of the song itself and its duration. The Canadians also manage to move us with "Pieces," acoustic guitars, strings, and subsequently electric ones, creating a highly effective intertwining.

After a decent "There's No Solution," the CD closes with "88," in my opinion, the best way to conclude an equally magnificent album. The song is at times in a metallic style, with a second instrumental part that is nothing short of fantastic.

The CD even has 3 bonus tracks; I don't understand why they wanted to leave them out, as in my opinion, they are very good. The first is "Noots," although I'm not convinced by the guitar intro; "Moron" can be said to be the "Welcome to Hell" of the CD, although it is less convincing than the latter; and finally, "Subject To Change," which reprises the chorus of the subsequent album "Underclass Hero" but in a much more pop punk way.

The final assessment is definitely positive—a punk rock and metal turn, with much more aggressive and convincing songs, and of course, the ballads, which didn't even have a trace in previous works, with one of the best ballads I have ever heard, "Pieces," if not the best.

Unfortunately, after this beautiful episode, the group will return to the old path, although they tried with their latest great album "Screaming Bloody Murder," but the result is not the same.....

Anyway, I recommend everyone to listen to it.