Canadian rockers, SUM 41, released their sixth studio album, "13 Voices", on October 7th, 2016 via Hopeless Records. It is their first album with a line-up as a five-piece band, and it features the return of guitarist Dave Baksh (who had been out of the group for nine years). It also sees the addition of guitarist Tom Thacker on lead guitar, and new drummer Frank Zummo, who officially replaces original founding member Steve Jocz.

Back in 2014, Deryck Whibley published a personal note on his site explaining that he had a liver and kidney failure due to extensive drinking. He posted that he had been in treatment for a month, and that he'd be taking a break to focus and care for his own health. The difficult times that the singer went through are quite evident in this new recording, which sounds more mature and also more intimate. The album starts with "A Murder Of Crows", a slow orchestral introduction, and the breakdown riffs which sets a moody feeling. However, it doesn't take long for the fast punk-rock guitars and drums rolls to take their full speed in "Goddamn I'm Dead Again", which has all that power and fun of the late 90s. It even has a little "Stairway to Heaven" feel throughout the solo.
"Fake my own death" has a very catchy rhythm and chorus, and with this song we are thrown back to the early 2000 sounds, it reminds quite a bit of PUDDLE OF MUDD in the chorus structure, but has it's point of originality too in the breaks and reprises.

"13 Voices", the title song, and in my opinion is the best track of this album, presents very intimate and mature lyrics. The structure of the sound is solid, with lows and highs flowing seamlessly.

The album continues through classic moments of New Metal and Punk Rock, it has mixture of fast and slow moments, even if perhaps it lacks of a bit of originality. It seems a mash up of all the bands that were great between '95-'05; it has bits of LINKIN PARK, THE OFFSPRING, and so on. The main difference from their early work is the darkness that sips through the music and lyrics; they have come very far from the light-heartedness "Fat Lip" era, and perhaps with this record, we miss a little of that fire and fun moments. Nevertheless, it is quite enjoyable to listen to.<