Sum 41 To Disband After 27 Years

Sum 41 will break up after 27 years as a band, but not before releasing a final album, Heaven :x: Hell, and embarking on a farewell tour across the globe.

The Fat Lip punk rockers made the shock announcement on social media overnight (Tuesday, 9 May), where they wrote:

“Being in Sum 41 since 1996 brought us some of the best moments of our lives. We are forever grateful to our fans both old and new, who have supported us in every way. It is hard to articulate the love and respect we have for all of you and we wanted you to hear this from us first.

“Sum 41 will be disbanding. We will still be finishing all of our current upcoming tour dates this year, and we're looking forward to releasing our final album Heaven :x: Hell, along with a final worldwide headlining tour to celebrate. Details will be announced as soon as we have them.

“For now, we look forward to seeing all of you skumfuks on the road and are excited for what the future will bring for each of us.

“Thank you for the last 27 years of Sum 41.”

Last May, the band’s guitarist Dave Baksh revealed that he was cancer-free after finding a tumour two months beforehand.

Baksh’s post stated, “Within two weeks I went through surgery in order to get rid of a tumour that ended up being #cancer.

"Something incredible that this disease taught me is how many amazing and supportive people I have in my life. I’m beyond thankful for you and I’m forever in your debt. So as of now I’m cancer free and ready to enjoy tour life again with a fresh perspective on everything.”

More recently, Sum 41 vocalist Deryck Whibley gave an update on the new album while on the Tuna On Toast With Stryker podcast last month, where he said (transcribed by Blabbermouth): "[Heaven :x: Hell is] a double record, and the Heaven side is ten songs and it's all like our old-school Sum 41 pop-punk sound.

“New songs that are in the vein of All Killer and Does This Look Infected. The Hell side is another ten songs that are all in sort of the heavier sort of [direction from] Chuck to what we've been doing lately, heavier sound. So it's 20 songs total.”

He elaborated, “I had been writing some of the heavier stuff already. So I had about four or five of those. And I just kept going and all of a sudden I just had 20 songs. And at the time, I didn't know what to do with them. I thought, 'I'll pick the best ten maybe and make an album.'

“And I just went and listened to all 20 in a row. I thought, 'Okay, I'll listen to all the pop-punk first, all the heavy second. And these are just demos. I'm driving around, I go through all the pop-punk songs and I get halfway through the heavy, and that's when it hit me: I think this whole thing should be an album. It should be a double album.”

Sum 41 have sold 15 million records worldwide, scored a Grammy Award nomination, two Juno Awards, and a Kerrang! Award and multiple Alternative Press Awards in their storied career. 

Throughout their 27 years, Sum 41 developed a reputation for being one of the hardest-working, most prolific acts to emerge from the pop-punk scene.