Chuck

Following the non-metal trend, another album i owe a lot to is Sum 41's Chuck. Before i was into metal i was big into punk, and the heaviest bands i would listen to were The Offspring and Bad Religion. Chuck is Sum 41's not by any means a metal album, but it's their heaviest album and was one of the albums that provided a gateway to heavier things for me.

Chuck was mixed by Tom Lord-Alge, one of the most famous mixers around. He is a three-time Grammy-Award winning record producer and mixer and helped pioneer a method of digital tape editing known as "flying" vocals, which is using a piece of the chorus to accent a different part of the song. Other bands he's worked with include Blink-182, Hoobastank, Avril Lavigne, and Weezer.

One of the things i've learned from listening to Chuck is that Tom Lord-Alge is really good at layering vocals. At the end of the song No Reason there's at one point like 4 different vocal lines going on at the same time, yet he layered them so well that you can tell each one apart quite easily. Another thing i like is the sound of the guitar and bass together. They fit together perfectly and create a really meaty, crunchy sound.

All of these things together made a really good album that I keep listening to regularly.