Rough Edge: AFI CD Reviews

"Decemberunderground" (Interscope; 2006)

AFI started out as a hardcore punk band. This album had them drawn and quartered by fans because, even though they please the punk revival, they also toss in some glam. AFI also gear their sound toward a more industrial and techno style here. Plus, they signed with a major label and fans too often think when the Captain leaves the ship, he inadvertently becomes a rat.

"Decemberunderground" is half hardcore punk and those cuts are fast and brutal. The other half is more of a song-by-every-other-song playlist of different music. Strings, pop offerings and rock tendencies emerge as the disc plays on. Sometimes, it sounds like two different bands on the same disc. The music is great though; this is one band I’ll have to research (even more than I already did) and see what I missed while living in my bubble.

AFI is not without their weirdness, either. If you rewind the Prelude past 00:00 (to -00:20) you can hear a hidden introduction to the track. Also, this is first AFI release that doesn't contain a hidden track at the end of the disc since “Shut Your Mouth And Open Your Eyes” was released in 1997.

Favs will include “Kill Caustic,” “Miss Murder,” “Summer Shudder,” “Love Like Winter,” and “Endlessly, She Said.”

AFI: Jade Puget – guitar; Davey Havok – vocals; Adam Carson – drums; Hunter – bass.

For more information, check out http://www.afireinside.net.

I have to concede a certain level of shame in reviewing "Sing the Sorrow." California native AFI (short for "A Fire Within") has been around for ten years. In that time they have amassed more than a half dozen albums, the most recent being "Sing the Sorrow." Still, I knew little about them. Alas, it was not their hit single, "Girl's not Grey" (which most recently won a VMA) that got my attention, it was a friend in Belgium who sent me a copy of their most recent release with a simple, yellow Post-It missive reading "Listen."

"Sing the Sorrow" (co-produced by music heavyweights Bruce Vig and Jerry Finn) is not one easily definable musical work. It is no more metal than punk; no more punk than techno - all melded into a sonic mind storm. Throughout "Sing the Sorrow" each track works as an audible representative of the very definition of crescendo.

And with this brevity and unequivocal confidence, I pass the Post-it note on to you: Listen.

AFI is: Davey Havok (vocals), Jade Puget (guitar), Hunter (bass), Adam Carson (drums).

For more information, check out http://www.afireinside.net.