'Does This Look Infected' is the follow up to Sum 41's 2001 debut album 'All Killer No Filler'. The album is a heavier take on their usual fusion of chart friendly punk-pop and rap. It includes the single 'Still Waiting'.

Nov 2002

Researchers are clueless. Doctors are baffled. Mothers - hide your daughters. Daughters - hide your mothers. Just when you thought the world couldn't get any worse...Sum 41, the devil's four-headed lovechild, have returned! Bringing along their most contagious album yet, 'Does This Look Infected?' (a title inspired following a four-day bender at Singapore's most notorious brothel, 'Four Floors of Whores'). To capture the desired sound on their heaviest and most powerful album to date, Sum 41 - Deryck (guitar/vocals), Dave (guitar), Cone (bass), Stevo 32 (drums) - recruited producer Greig Nori of Lucifer Productions. "It seemed only natural that we should use one of the Devil's own henchmen", says Cone, "any friend of Satan is a friend of mine". A fine choice as it would turn out. If the intention of 2001's 'All Killer No Filler' was to kick the listener in the balls, 'Does This Look Infected?' goes a step further and smashes your head in. The album delivers 12 new raging tracks, including 'Still Waiting', 'The Hell Song' and 'Thanks For Nothing'. Songs this infectious are bound to grow on you. Kind of like a rash. Or a rapidly spreading fungus...

Includes two UK exclusive bonus tracks

• Rolling Stone (12/12/02, p.93) - "...there's an increased emphasis on metal....these songs aren't as slap-happy as they first seem..."
  Q (01/03, p.113) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Sleek, pummelling anthems of teenage joy and confusion..."
  Entertainment Weekly (11/29/02, p.101-2) - "...Sum 41 more than hold their own against the current competition....There's an underlying metallic vibe here with lots of meaty riffs and galloping tempos, touches of hardcore, an even a bit of rapping..." - Rating: B-

Sum 41: Sirbiznatch, Cope, Stevo Dirty Poo, The Honorable Sir Captain Brownsound Of The First Airborne, Regiment, Heavyweight Champion PHD.
Recorded at Avatar Studios, New York, New York.
Often lumped unfairly into the same pop-punk bag as Green Day, and sometimes even dismissed as nothing more than A Blink-182 rip-off, Sum 41 definitively separates itself from the pack with DOES THIS LOOK INFECTED?. Sporting a level of sheer musicianship that dwarfs that of the aforementioned groups, the band powers through all 12 tracks with a machine-like efficiency and a thrash metalesque knack for rhythmic precision and complexity. In fact, there are instrumental passages here that could easily pass for MASTER OF PUPPETS-era Metallica or even vintage Anthrax.
To be sure, there are the usual heaping helpings of catchy melodies and Descendents-approved high harmonies throughout, but DOES THIS LOOK INFECTED? reveals an increased emphasis on the punk half of the punk-pop equation. Echoes of pioneering hardcore/metal hybrid bands like Killing Time, Leeway, and Bad Brains abound, and the record consequently has a tougher, more substantial feel than any of Sum 41's previous efforts.

The four neo-punk/pop upstarts from Toronto who make up Sum 41 formed the band while they were all still in high school, and the youthful exuberance of those days can still be strongly felt in their 2000 debut EP HALF HOUR OF POWER. The endearingly bratty skate-punk sound of that recording placed the band in the sonic company of Blink-182, with whom they would eventually tour. Sum 41's first full-length album ALL KILLER NO FILLER was the band's major chart breakthrough, establishing them as a force to be reckoned with.