“Chuck,” the new CD by Sum 41 is without a doubt amazing. Is the perfect blend of punk rock and emo. The band took a break from finished up their CD which is pretty political in mid-may before they headed to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The CD was originally titled “Now what is this picture saying.” It was later changed to be named after a very important person in all of their lives.

The Band headed to Congo in order to film a documentary entitled “From the Front Lines.” The documentary was intended to show every one of the problems in Congo right now which include the bloody six year civil war that has been raging on. However shooting went sour when only days after landing in Congo the band was forced to take cover when shooting broke out across the street.

After realizing that the shooting was more serious than just a few sporadic shots the band and the crew took cover in their hotel with about 40 other hotel guests.

Bullets were coming through windows and everyone was just lying on the ground with their hands on their heads,” singer Deryck Whibley said. “One bomb came too close, hit the hotel and the hotel just started shaking. Everyone dove and was lying on the ground. Things were falling off the walls, mirrors were breaking. That’s when we all kind of realized that this was really going bad and we’re probably not going to make it out.

About 5 or 6 hours later Chuck Pelletier arranged for armored personnel carriers to extract the crowd. The only way out was through the hotel lobby and into the streets. In what Deryck Whibley describes as his scariest moment ever the band among others sprinted from the lobby room door about 100 feet to the armored personnel carriers thinking of how they are going to be fired upon the whole time.

Sum 41 had joked later on in the U. N. sompound saying that if they make it out alive they should name the CD Chuck after Chuck Pelletier. About a week later the band still thought it was a good idea and changed the name. Right before the fighting broke out Deryck began thinking of a new song. The song “We’re All to Blame” looks at the bigger picture of how the modern world’s unquenchable thirst for power, money and natural resources has the everyone in a lot of trouble.

The CD is made up of political songs that don’t necessarily say vote for a certain person or anything like that. It’s more of observations on what is wrong with the world and how we need to start fixing it. The CD was released on October 12th and is full of brilliantly made tracks. Be sure to listen to “We’re All to Blame,” which was the first single off the CD, and Pieces which was just recently released on the radio.