Sum 41

Sum 41 is a Canadian punk-rock band originally from in 1996 in Ajax, Ontario. The musical group managed to become a pop-punk icon for generations of the 2000s and early 2010s.

And that's a very curious fact, considering that they initially positioned their oeuvre not as the heir to British old-school punk from the United Kingdom, but more as the result of the inspiration by the classic rock bands of the late XX century such as Metallica, Devo, Green Day and even the Beatles. It is not surprising, taking into account the specificity of the composition of the group. At different times, the number of musicians varied from 4 to 6, but one thing remained unchanged: there were from 3 to 4 guitarists and one drummer playing simultaneously in the group. So, again, there is nothing strange in the fact that the guys ended up with punk. So, let's check how things are going on at the moment.

So, at the current time, the group consists of five musicians. Moreover, one musician can play different instruments, depending on the album and song, in particular. Well, as of 2020, the group consists of:
Deryck Jason Whibley - lead vocalist, rhythm and lead guitar, keyboards;
Dave Nizam Baksh - lead guitar, back-vocal;
Jason Paul “Cone” McCaslin - bass guitarist, back-vocal;
Thomas Arnold Thacker - rhythm and lead guitar, keyboards, back-vocal;
Frank Zummo - drums, occasional back-vocal.

The group was founded by four musicians, who've had some basic experience of playing as members of other music projects. The main vocalist, Deryck Whibley, who was the guitarist back those days, is the only one who plays from the beginning of the band until now. Soon after that, in 1998, Dave Baksh, who is the actual lead-guitarist of Sum 41, connected to the Bad. Initially, the group appeared under the name Kaspir and was generally a cover band, performing mainly hits of NOFX. However, the group specifically changed the name for the Supernova TV show in September 1996. Although the group has nominally existed since 1996, de facto, it was formed only in 1999, along with the advent of the bassist Cone.

The first popularity began to come to the group around 1998. First of all, the group was remembered by all listeners for their viral videos. For example, in one of these videos, there was a captured moment, when the group members arranged a fake robbery of a pizzeria using water pistols. This period, and more specifically to 1998-1999, provides the first demo-recordings of their performances. Also, Sum 41 sends out its tapes to all the leading publishers in Canada and the USA, and soon Island Records draws attention to the young band and helps them begin recording their first EP Half Hour of Power in 2000, shortly after gaining first listeners. Unexpectedly for everyone, the album certified platinum in Canada, which laid the foundation for the real popularity of the group.

Immediately after this success, the team began to record a full-length album. It was an album named All Killer No Filler that came into the world in May 2001. The album became so successful that, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, it went platinum almost immediately after its release. Some singles from the album remain the most popular songs of the group to this day. The group's second album, Does This Look Infected, was released at the end of 2002 and almost repeated the success of the first. The song Still Waiting received particular fame and recognition, and became the hallmark of the group, in fact.

The band's third album named Chuck remains one of the most titled albums in the history of the group. It was released in 2004 and shortly after won the Rock Album of the Year nomination by Juno Awards. This album, in contrast to the previous ones, was marked by a rather gloomy text and tone. Chuck made a splash almost identical to the furor produced by the first album. The Asian, or more precisely, the Japanese market received the release very warmly. This one, as well as the group's subsequent albums, reached very high positions in the Japanese charts. Separately, we would like to note that the musical accompaniment has become much "heavier", some overtones of metal could be easily found in Chuck.

But even Chuck cannot be called the most sensational; it still has not eclipsed the glory of All Killer No Filler. The group's fourth release was controversial. The album Underclass Hero received mediocre reviews from both critics and fans. The sound of the group began to remind the first album's pop-punk tone, then heavy-metal influenced punk as it was with Chuck. The texts became even more morose and overflowed with motives of social struggle, which is visible in the title of the album.

The band faced their first deep crisis after the cold greeting of the Underclass Hero album. They made their first significant break in releases for the four years right after Dave Baksh left the band for several years to participate in another project. The next album, Screaming Bloody Murder, received a slightly higher rating, but still didn't even come close to the glory of the first three albums.

The song "Blood in My Eyes" was nominated for a Grammy Award for the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, after which the band once again changed its lineup, which led to an even greater creative break in work.

The group did not release anything until 2016, which was caused both by the poor health condition of the lead vocalist, and an unsettled team. Back in 2015, fans could have seen that the band was likely to disband shortly, the situation changed drastically. In 2016, they came back with their new release.

In fact, the group intensified in 2016 and updated somewhat in terms of line-up. The guitarist Dave Baksh returned to the group, and the old drummer was replaced by a new one, Frank Zumto, who plays in the group to this day. During this time, the group released two more albums: 13 Voices, and Order in Decline. Both albums received generally favorable reviews from critics. Namely, the group received positive ratings from Metacritic, AllMusic, The Independent, Kerrang!, and other influential public opinion aggregators. Thus, we see a rebirth of the group. It is worth noting that even though the world tour was interrupted in 2020 for obvious reasons, the guys continue to work on new songs. We can even call it the second youth of the band. During the more than 20 years that the group spent on stage, a whole generation of groups has grown up, which were influenced by Sum 41. For example, 5 Seconds of Summer, PVRIS, Seaway, The Vamps, ROAM, Dune Rats, etc.