Does This Look Infected?

For about five minutes, Sum 43 were actually quite amusing with their bouncy punk rock and piss taking videos (particularly the hip-hoppy ‘Fat Lip’), a welcome antidote to the pofaced nu-metal contingent of that particular era.

A few months on and the joke isn’t that funny anymore. For a band supposed to be playing the kind of melodic punk rock currently shifting units on a global scale, Does This Look Infected is shockingly unmelodic and short on memorable tunes. For all their energy, spiky hair and rebellious attitude, Sum 41 are ultimately just a below average rock band who got lucky.

And what’s with this continued obsession with spoof heavy metal? If I wanted to listen to bad heavy metal, I’d go to my own record collection. If I wanted to listen to some thrilling North American punk, I’d go to Bad Religion, Green Day, NOFX or any of the countless bands that Sum 41 would love to emulate.

Maybe we never expected them to reach those kind of heights, but it would at least be nice to think they were genuinely trying.