AFI – ‘AFI (The Blood Album)’

By Glen Bushell

It seems that whenever AFI make their return, they are met with the same comments. “I wish they still sounded like their old stuff,” or “I only like the first three albums,” are often spewed across the Internet with a refusal to let go of the past. It’s true that ‘Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes’ was a fantastic record. Yes, ‘The Art Of Drowning’ is a goth-punk classic. But times have moved on and so have AFI. No band wants to make regressive music. Part of being a musician is evolution: you grow, your taste expands, and your creative vision changes.

The first thing that jumps out about the tenth AFI album, ‘AFI (The Blood Album)’, is that it’s less dramatic. While that is something they have honed across their last four albums, often beginning with a tense introduction, it is missing this time around. Surprisingly, the album is all the better for it. The theatrics of ‘Decemberunderground’ are a distant memory, the pomp of ‘Crash Love’ feels like a thing of the past, and the malice of ‘Burials’ has been forgotten.

Even though ‘Dark Snow’ is flecked with electronic hues, and lush keys add an extra layer to ‘Aurelia’, this is the most direct they have sounded in years. While it is a far cry from being a “classic” AFI record, and it would be a lie to say it is a return to their roots, ‘AFI (The Blood Album)’ has a bigger impact than anything the band has released in the last decade.

The tracks have, for the most part, been kept under the four-minute mark. It means that the fourteen compositions on ‘AFI (The Blood Album)’ cruise by and never outstay their welcome. ‘Still a Stranger’ builds through a typical verse, chorus, verse arrangement, allowing Davey Havok to show off his impressive vocal range. ‘So Beneath You’ is carried by Jade Puget’s jagged guitar playing and the stop/start riffs hark back to the bay area goth-punk sound of old.

Of course, it wouldn’t be an AFI record without some flair of decadence, which slips into ‘Snow Cats’, and the 80’s power-rock vibe of ‘Feed From The Floor’. When used minimally such as this, it gives the more grandiose moments the breathing space to shine, rather than get lost amongst the glamour.

Production wise, this is a very crisp sounding album, yet not so slick that it becomes overwhelming or saccharine. It adds extra bite to the anthemic ‘White Offerings’, and pulls the airtight rhythm section of Hunter Burgan and Adam Carson to the front on ‘She Speaks The Language’.

There’s a fair chance that before even hearing a single note of ‘AFI (The Blood Album)’, the band’s cult-like fan base will have made up their mind about it. Their devotees will love the album regardless of what anyone says about it, and to the end, it won’t change anyone’s mind that abandoned them for being different. Whichever way you feel about them, ‘AFI (The Blood Album)’ proves that they are still relevant, still moving forward, and still know how to be one thing: AFI.

GLEN BUSHELL

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