With Green Day's retirement seemingly imminent, Blink 182 and Sum 41 are left to fight it out for the punk rock spoils. So, in the red corner, there's the sad sight of men grasping onto their youth - hello Blink 182. In the blue corner, you'll find the inane exuberance of Sum 41, whose true adolescence isn't far behind them.
Sadly, until now '182 had the upper hand but they also had a head start. A handful of killer singles elevated them to unjustified heights, while '41 have clambered to that plateau with 'All Killer No Filler' - a self-explanatory album. Well, now the 'Summers have upped the ante. Catch them if you can.
If ever there was a testament to sending a young band on the road to punish themselves physically and mentally, it's '...Infected'. Incessant touring left no time to sit at home glued to the TV struggling for inspiration. Subject matter here is dark - suicide, drugs, internal demons, teen angst, the world being messed up, and errr, Anna-Nicole Smith! The guitars are guttural and very very loud and the momentum is nothing but breakneck. Which is exactly the way it should be.
The line "everybody's got their problems" opens the album and sets the tone, but far from wallowing in self-pity, it detonates violently every 180 seconds. Instead of mumbling and apologising for existing, this album spits in your face and screams in your ear. There's certainly little time to get bored with the fast and frantic guitar/drum/shouted-melody combo. Besides this isn't the type of album you sit stroking your chin to.
Lesson one - it's good to get things off your chest. 'Over My Head', the no-holds barred single 'Still Waiting', 'All Messed Up' and the undoubted highlight, 'No Brains', literally bruise, while the 37 vitriol-fuelled seconds of 'Asshole' are plain merciless.
But, that's not to say the album is without faults. In parts, it's certainly hard to differentiate between songs, for some reason they persist with the Beastie Boys pastiche (only once thankfully on 'Thanks For Nothing') and an ounce of variety might not have gone a miss, but these are minor points.
This is 'All Killer No Filler' with bells on and 'Does This Look Infected?' will rightly have the Blink 'boys' quaking in their trainers. Seconds out!
