‘Screaming Bloody Murder’ is the fifth full-length release from SUM 41. It’s strange to think that around 10 years ago we were all hearing ‘Fat Lip’ for the first time, eh? It’s even stranger to think that ‘All Killer No Filler’ remains the band’s most popular work. Fast forward a few years and with the departure of Dave ‘Brownsound’ Baksh in 2006, Sum 41 released the overwhelmingly underwhelming ‘Underclass Hero’ that saw them try to recapture the sound of ‘All Killer…’ but to little avail.
With ‘Screaming Bloody Murder’, Sum 41 have once again tried to shoot for a change in sound. Echoing some tracks from ‘Chuck’, the band have gone for a more mature, rock-heavy sound that is quite frankly more miss than hit. Where Sum 41 succeed is in heavy, fast punk songs. Although there is the odd one here, ‘Screaming Bloody Murder’ features a lot of piano-based tracks that sound like a mixture of latter-day Green Day and My Chemical Romance. Do we really need more of that?
Trying for a more mature sound is by no means a bad thing. Unfortunately Sum 41 have tried to do this in the wrong manner – ‘mature’ doesn’t have to mean balladry or boring. When it works, ‘Screaming Bloody Murder’ shows that Sum 41 could still be a brilliant pop punk band. These moments, however, are few and far between and this makes for a disappointing and once again, underwhelming album.
HENRY McCAUGHTRIE