hit worldwide radar in 1996 after tiny Ajax, Ontario, proved unable to fully contain the foursome's blathering mixture of punk-pop riffing, hip-hop poses, and toilet-bowl humor. Led by guitarist/vocalist
. Wooed by the boys' goofy antics and incendiary live show (and excited about the prospect of promoting their very own
on the payroll in 1999. The
EP followed, and Warped Tour dates got the word out. They returned in 2000 with the fun-filled full-length
, and the singles "In Too Deep" and "Fat Lip" became staples of both modern rock radio and
.
An extensive tour followed, and
Sum 41 enjoyed their boffo success the way all near-teenage boys would, with plenty of towel-snapping, groupie-loving, and self-deprecating, low-ball humor. In 2002, they returned to wax with
Does This Look Infected? While the album was a bit harder-edged, it found the band just as jazzed as ever to mix punk-pop business with sophomoric pleasure: the video for "Hell Song" featured the fellas acting out a sort of rock star debauchery cage match with the aid of a few celebrity action figures.
Metallica, Jesus Christ, and the Osbournes all made appearances in the hilarious clip.
It was not all fun and games, however, as their involvement in the charity group War Child Canada had
Sum 41 lending a hand in the making of a 2004 documentary covering the effects of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Five days into filming, fighting and gunfire suddenly erupted around them, and they barely escaped unharmed -- these events led to 2004's slightly more mature and serious effort,
Chuck, named for the UN aid worker, Chuck Pelletier, who was instrumental in getting them to safety. The DVD Rocked: Sum 41 in Congo was released at the end of 2005 and the live album
Go Chuck Yourself appeared the following March. Guitarist
Dave Baksh left the band during the spring of 2006 due to creative differences, going on to form the metal-punk outfit
Brown Brigade.
Sum 41 continued on as a trio, and their first album as such,
Underclass Hero, appeared in July 2007. The band eventually returned to being a quartet, replacing Baksh with guitarist Tom Thacker, and began to work on a new album. That new album, entitled Screaming Bloody Murder, appeared in March of 2011.
–
Johnny Loftus, Rovi