The Hell Song

"The Hell Song" is a song by the Canadian rock band Sum 41. It was released in February 2003 as the second single off the Sum 41 album Does This Look Infected?. The song was featured in the films American Wedding and Punk's Not Dead and in the video game Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This at Home. On May 29, 2015 "The Hell Song" was certified gold.

Content

Whibley wrote the song after learning that his best friend, a girl he used to date, had contracted HIV. He told Billboard magazine that the song came out in a half an hour after he found out about his friend. "I wasn't even meaning to write about it, but for some reason that just came out right away." Whibley has depicted the event as the heaviest thing that's happened in his group of friends.

Music video

The music video was of a concert with dolls and action figures, with Sum 41's faces on those "performing" in front of a Lite-Brite screen. They were joined with other action figures such as those of Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Ozzy Osbourne with his family, Marilyn Manson, Korn, Metallica, Eddie the Head, Gene Simmons, Spice Girls, Angus Young, Jesus Christ, Tuck Turner Willison, Alice Cooper and Ludacris. The dolls' obscene finger gestures and nudity are comically censored, which parodies real life. The video was directed by Marc Klasfeld.

Gamkaskloof

Coordinates: 33°20′29″S 21°52′36″E / 33.3415°S 21.8768°E / -33.3415; 21.8768

The Gamkaskloof Afrikaans pronunciation: [xɐm·kɐs·klʊəf] (also known as 'Die Hel') is a narrow isolated valley about 20 miles long with a maximum of 600 feet wide located in the Swartberg mountain range.

History

The Gamkaskloof was discovered in the early 19th century by farmers, but the first permanent settler was Peter Swanepoel, who settled in the valley in the 1830s. Later, the Marais, Cordier and Joubert Nel Mostert families settled in the valley, growing to a community of around 160 individuals. The residents used horses to cross the Swartberg mountains to reach Prince Albert and Calitzdorp. Later a school was established, with the teacher also leading the Sunday church.

They farmed grain, vegetables, fruits, tea and tobacco, along with distilling witblits and brewing beer made from wild honey.

The residents had petitioned the government for many years to build a road into the valley. Eventually in 1962 a road was completed which led to the depopulation of the community. The children attended high schools in the nearby villages and most of them did not return to the subsistence life in the valley. The elderly retired to retirement villages outside the valley and the number of residents diminished until all but one person sold their homes to the Western Cape Nature Conservation Board in 1991.