A Fire Inside has hit the big time with their new album Sing the Sorrow, which was released by Columbia Records in early March.
Sing the Sorrow, the band's most recent album since its 2000 release of Art of Drowning, is meant for a patient audience because it requires a few listens to catch everything. But it is worth the wait.
AFI is one of those special bands that defies labels and stereotypes. Calling their music punk rock, hard-core, Goth rock or any other name in the book is inaccurate.
At times their sound has old-school punk influences and at others it distinctly draws from other innovative groups from the mid 1990s such as the Smashing Pumpkins.
Whatever you want to call it, AFI has found its unique sound and is now cashing in on it. Sing the Sorrow is full of melancholy and desperately unhappy lyrics that will appeal to the gothic rock scene last occupied by Marilyn Manson. Lead singer Davey Havok's black on black on black look also contributes to the scene.
There are also enough screaming guitar riffs and heart-thumping drum fills to draw in the average alternative rock fan that might or might not be a devoted Warped Tour follower.
AFI switches back and forth between genres so quickly it is rather disorienting at first. While a song may start off light, it can become the definition of heavy in a drumbeat, and vice versa.
The group, which also features Jade Puget on guitar, Adam Carson on drums and Hunter on bass, has a heavy tour schedule, which means they stay on the road enough to hit every town frequently enough to make you think, "Weren't these guys just here last month?"
This has built AFI an impressive and loyal fan base in a semi-underground sense. With the heavy radio play of the first single, "Girl's Not Grey," and a main stage slot on this summer's Warped Tour, AFI will soon become a band on the A-list of performers.
In the midst of lyrics about drug addiction, suicide, alienation, and the impending doom of the Earth, AFI manages to impart a little hard-earned, ten-years-on-the-road wisdom into its songs. Listening to them is not unlike looking into the eyes of a wise old man, which is unusual given that the members are no older than any other rock group out there.
AFI's music is not for the faint of heart, which may be the only downside to the album. Those looking for some of the more popular themes and "emo" undertones will not find them here. AFI went above emotional a long time ago; this album is the aftermath of pouring their hearts out to an unforgiving audience, which may not appeal to everyone's palate.
Between the sing-along choruses and guitar hooks, not to mention the aspect of being unconventional and the element of surprise, AFI has an album that is generating a lot of buzz about their future as mega stars with a contract with Pepsi. Let's hope they take the road less traveled, the one they've managed to master over the past 10 years: their own road for better or for worse.
Key tracks: "Girl's Not Grey," "The Leaving Song," "Bleed Black" and "Silver and Cold."
Annemarie Moody is an entertainment reporter for the Web Devil. Reach her at annemarie.moody@asu.edu.
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Sing the Sorrow A.F.I. Columbia Records
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