Album Reviews

To be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of double albums. I always feel like most of them feel bloated with a fair amount of filler that would have been better off whittled down to one great single album. But hey, this is Sum 41’s final album and they are pulling out all the stops. Does it work? Sure, but it didn’t change my mind about double albums.

They aren’t offering anything new on their last album, but they sure are showing off all their different sides. While the ‘Heaven’ disc of Sum 41’s eighth full-length focuses on the band’s pop-punk affliction, the ‘Hell’ part showcases their metal side.

There are a lot of solid tracks to be found across the two albums. A couple of highlights? Opener ‘Waiting On A Twist Of Fate’ is vintage Sum 41, ‘Time Won’t Wait’ is pop-punk bliss and ‘Rise Up’ is sure to fire up plenty of moshpits on the band’s farewell tour.

Unfortunately, it’s not all good news though. Cuts like ‘Landmines’ and ‘Dopamine’ are as bad as anything Machine Gun Kelly has shat out, ‘I Don’t Need Anyone’ sounds like nu metal by the numbers and the last thing the world needed was another mediocre cover of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Paint It Black’.

Would ‘Heaven :x: Hell’been better as a single album? Definitely. But overall, this is a worthy send-off from Sum 41. See you at the reunion in a couple of years!

Heaven :x: Hell track list:

1. Waiting On A Twist Of Fate
2. Landmines
3. I Can’t Wait
4. Time Won’t Wait
5. Future Primitive
6. Dopamine
7. Not Quite Myself
8. Bad Mistake
9. Johnny Libertine
10. Radio Silence
11. Preparasi A Salire
12. Rise Up
13. Stranger In These Times
14. I Don’t Need Anyone
15. Over The Edge
16. House Of Liars
17. You Wanted War
18. Paint It Black
19. It’s All Me
20. How The End Begins