10 Perfect Alternative Albums That Deserve A Lot More Love

3. Chuck - Sum 41

One of the cardinal sins that comes with being a pop punk band is selling out. Since punk has always been about subverting the system from the inside out, every one of the bands that strutted their stuff across MTV ended up looking like the Fisher Price version of what rock and roll was supposed to be. Sum 41 were never comfortable in punk to begin with though, and Chuck was the change of pace that no one saw coming.

While Does This Look Infected already had some dark tunes sprinkled in the mix, this is where Sum 41 tried to blend pop punk and heavy metal into one sound, and making for one hell of a listen trying to work through it. You do have some downtempo material on Some Say, but there's no letting up through most of this record, taking some of the most aggro moments of the last few records and making that the focal point of songs like Angels with Dirty Faces.

This was also around the time of the War in Iraq, and you can really feel that anger on this record, with the title being an homage to one of the band's friends who helped them out when they were playing in the Republic of Congo. This whole album might feel like a gamble, but these guys always had the chops to back it up, even down to creating one of the best Metallica songs not written by Metallica on the Bitter End. Since we now have people blending genres like A Day to Remember, Chuck may have been more ahead of its time than people realize.