Sum 41's Whibley wages War on his demons in new video

A still from Sum 41's War video
A still from Sum 41's War video

Sum 41 have released a video for their new single War.

The song is taken from the Canadian punk outfit’s upcoming sixth album 13 Voices, which is released on October 7 via Hopeless Records.

13 Voices was written as frontman Deryck Whibley recovered from a near-death experience brought on by alcohol abuse.

The video for War shows the band performing in an airplane graveyard in the middle of a California desert. Whibley uncovers reminders of his past – a journal, an old drawing, a t-shirt, a guitar and an empty bottle of alcohol – in the wreckage and burns them along with his past life.

Whibley says the crash site represents how he “crashed and burned” and that the graveyard was “a place for a funeral for my past.”

He adds: “I feel that this song literally saved my life. I was at my absolute lowest point of what seemed like a never-ending recovery. When I was at a tipping point of falling back into drinking or staying the course of recovery, I grabbed a pencil and paper instead of a bottle and started writing.

“Whenever I had any thoughts of giving up, I would read these lyrics to myself over and over again. They helped remind me of what it was that I was fighting for, and that I needed to keep fighting harder. Giving up was not an option.”

Sum 41 previously issued a video for the album’s lead track Fake My Own Death.

The band’s North American autumn Don’t Call It A Sum-back tour with Senses Fail and As It Is kicks off in October.

Sum 41 13 Voices album art

Sum 41 13 Voices album art

Sum 41 13 Voices tracklist

  1. A Murder Of Crows (You’re All Dead To Me)
  2. Goddamn I’m Dead Again
  3. Fake My Own Death
  4. Breaking The Chain
  5. There Will Be Blood
  6. 13 Voices
  7. War
  8. God Save Us All (Death to POP)
  9. The Fall And The Rise
  10. Twisted By Design

Sum 41 Don’t Call It A Sum-back tour 2016

Oct 05: Orlando House of Blues , FL
Oct 07: Ft Lauderdale Revolution, FL
Oct 08: St Petersburg State Theatre, FL
Oct 09: Atlanta Masquerade, GA
Oct 11: Boston House of Blues, MA
Oct 12: Philadelphia Fillmore , PA
Oct 13: Sayreville Starland Ballroom , NJ
Oct 14: New York Playstation Theater, NY
Oct 17: Montreal Metropolis, QC
Oct 18: Toronto The Phoenix, ON
Oct 19: Detroit St Andrews, MI
Oct 21: Chicago House of Blues, IL
Oct 22: Minneapolis Mill City Nights, MN
Oct 25: Edmonton Union Hall, AB
Oct 26: Calgary MacEwan Hall, AB
Oct 28: Vancouver Commodore, BC
Oct 29: Seattle Neptune, WA
Oct 30: Portland Hawthorne, OR
Nov 01: San Francisco Regency, CA
Nov 02: Riverside Municipal Auditorium, CA
Nov 04: Phoenix Livewire, AZ
Nov 05: San Diego House of Blues, CA
Nov 06: Los Angeles Mayan, CA

Sum 41 Deryck out of hospital, as roadie recalls booze binges

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022. 

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