For a band called 3 Doors Down, they sure went far away to shoot their new video for "When I'm Gone."

The clip, which features footage of the bandmembers hanging out with American soldiers, was shot during 3 Doors Down's recent aircraft carrier goodwill tour of naval bases in Europe and the Middle East (see [article id="1457210"]"3 Doors Down To Set Sail With U.S. Navy"[/article]). Director Marc Klasfeld ('NSYNC, Jay-Z) was originally hired to shoot a video for the song, the first single from November 12's Away From the Sun, but after the tour footage came back they shelved the Klasfeld clip.

"When I'm Gone," starts with a weary acoustic passage before launching into a catchy power-rock riff. The track is about the frustration of maintaining a relationship when you're away from home. Frontman Brad Arnold wrote the song on tour last year during a lonely night in Puerto Rico.

Other cuts on the album voice similar sentiments, including the title track, which features slow, aching guitar that gets progressively louder but no more upbeat. In a voice filled with longing, Arnold sings, "I miss the life, I miss the colors of the world/ Can anyone tell where I am?/ Now again I found myself so far down away from the sun/ That shines into the darkest place."

3 Doors Down build drama by combining soft choruses with aggressive choruses, but the band sometimes deviates from the formula, seesawing between melancholy reflection and pulse-pounding riffery before reaching the refrain.

On "Dangerous Game," the band starts out in a bittersweet sonic rumination but gains speed with the prechorus, in which Arnold sings, "What will we do?/ What will we say?/ When it's the end of this game that we play/ Will we crumble into the dust, my friend?/ Or will we start this game over again." Then, instead of dropping back down, 3 Doors Down rev it up with a jam filled with towering power chords and an unrelenting beat.

3 Doors Down return to familiar ground on some Sun tracks, most notably the textbook string-saturated ballad "Here Without You." The band's familiar elements return as well, as guitarist Matt Roberts embellishes straightforward riffs with fleet-fingered flourishes, bassist Todd Harrell lays down a colorful rhythmic foundation and Arnold sings with the same conviction that marked the band's 2000 debut, Better Life.