Sum 41

Sum 41’s first single, “Fat Lip,” went to #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and became the band’s most successful single. It was the first of several songs to land in the upper reaches of the Modern Rock survey.

Collectively, the Canadian band’s debut EP “Half Hour Of Power” and the first three albums (“All Killer No Filler,” “Does This Look Infected” and “Chuck” released between ’99 and ’04, sold over 7 million copies.

But trouble loomed.

First, guitarist and original member, guitarist Dave “Brownsound” Baksh left. Then the group split from their management company. “We were kind of left with nobody,” said frontman Deryck Whibley, who produced the group’s fourth studio effort, “Underclass Hero.” “And all the odds were stacked against us. People were saying we couldn’t recover from all these changes. There was so much doubt.”

But adversity has a way of bonding a band. “We haven’t been this together since our first album,” claimed Whibley. “I would only have done this record if everyone was into it. There was no point otherwise. There was a lot of negative energy out there.”

“Underclass Hero” was released in the summer of ’07. It sold 44,000 copies in its first week to land at #7 on the Billboard 200 and went on to sell one-million copies worldwide.

Whibley, who had been dating singer/songwriter Avril Lavigne for two years, tied the knot in ‘06. Though the marriage only lasted three years, the couple continued to work together – mostly on her projects (a song for the “Alice In Wonderland” soundtrack and her ’11 album “Goodbye Lullaby”).

Whibley had time to work with Lavigne because it was slow going on the Sum 41 front. Guitarist Tom Thacker was added to the line-up and Whibley announced an album would be released in ’09. A similar statement followed months later with Whibley adding that the album would be “less poppy, more punchy record.”

“Screaming Bloody Murder” didn’t arrive until ’11. The only album the band recorded as a trio took half a decade to surpass the first week sales of “Underclass Hero.”

“13 Voices,” Sum 41’s first album in five years was also the first to feature drummer Frank Zummo, who replaced original drummer Steve Jocz. The album saw the addition of guitarist Tom Thacker and Bakish’s return (in ’15). The album was also their first as a five-piece band.  Despite the shuffling sales were only slightly better “Screaming Bloody Murder.”

“Order In Decline” was Sum 41’s seventh studio effort and was their second album released by an indie label. The ’19 album was described as continuation of the band’s departure from Pop Punk in favor of Metal, Melodic Metal and Alt. Rock. The album peaked at only #60 on the Billboard 200 but it did land in the Top 10 on Billboard‘s various Rock and Independent charts.

Five years came and went before Sum 41 announced their breakup after 27 years and the release their final album “Heaven :x: Hell.” 

“This is the record I’d like to go out on,” noted Whibley. “We’ve made a double album of Pop Punk and Metal, and it makes sense. It took a long time for us to pave this lane for ourselves, but we did, and it’s unique to us.”

The ’25 album featured “Landmines” and “Rise Up.”

“When I wrote ‘Landmines‘, I had no intention of writing an old-school ‘Pop Punk’ song,” Whibley explained. “It just came out really quickly and I knew right away that this song felt special to me.”

“Writing ‘Rise Up‘, I felt the way I did when I first got signed,” Whibley added. “I felt the pressure and the need to create something great, but I felt so excited at the same time.”

In conjunction with the album’s release Sum 41 was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame during the 54th annual Juno Awards (’25). By this time, Sum 41 had released eight albums and sold over 15-million units worldwide.

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