USPS pulled a surprise and had the record here five days early. It's pink on clear, the platter is white acrylic. I like that platter sound best, and the white makes colored vinyl really pop. And it needs all the visual help it can get in its shadowed lower shelf.
Looking up the setlists and having so much FOMO then realizing they haven't done a proper European tour since the Crash Love era...
Dang that is good. Deciding if I wanna make a mad dash for 5 hours for the Philly show this week. Looks like killing lights has probably left the rotation though, which is disappointing.
They're so fucking amazing live every time but I always wish they played longer. DC show was killer but they only played 70 minutes
trust me, been seeing this band 2-3 times every headline tour since right before sing the sorrow. around 2017 the setlists Jade writes almost make him belong in an institution. Anything is possible at any date and it's even crazier this tour. I'll be in Brooklyn and Philly, anticipating the deep cuts like i'm waiting on line for phantom menace in 99. I stand by that from 98-2004 they were the greatest live band going, and they're not far off now for four 50 year old dudes.
I've been on an AFI tear leading up to the show on Wed. (pre Jade era 95-97) - Don't really fuck with these records. I appreciate the energy and you can see some of their gothic overtones coming alive here but a lot of it sounds like your standard melodic skate punk BLACK SAILS IN THE SUNSET - This is where a little bit of melody comes out though, again, still seems like it's really for the diehards without paying much mind to those outside the cult THE ART OF DROWNING - A really cool fusion of what they did best while also adding dynamics to their sound and some more melody. "Of Greetings And Goodbye" should be a standard at every show. SING THE SORROW - Still their best IMO though the production/mastering drives me nuts as the songs should have much more kick to them yet it was probably produced that way to sound good on radio which, in 2025, was a dumb decision. DECEMBERUNDERGROUND - I imagine a lot of punk bands jumped off board with this one but I appreciate the electronic inclusion, the gothic styles while not losing their identity CRASH LOVE - If the punks didn't leap on the last one they DEFINITELY abandoned ship on this one. It's a great mainstream rock album but probably got caught up in the perfect storm of older fans moving on, not having a surefire hit like "Miss Murder" for the mainstream and getting lost in the lack of infrastructure to support a rock band at the time. BURIALS - The dark evil twin of Sing The Sorrow, this might be my 2nd or 3rd favorite AFI album depending on my mood. It's a dark and evil sounding record which works well for them, you can tell Davey was definitely going through it at the time. AFI (BLOOD ALBUM) - I guess this was an attempt to keep the b(r)and going but not much is really unique about this album. A lot of it calls back to their other albums so it's a nice-to-have record though "Hidden Knives" absolutely slays and I can't understand why it's not a staple in their set. BODIES - I made a crack that this album was a good album to listen to while folding laundry and I stills stand by it. It's pleasant, doesn't cause a fuss and then I forget most of it afterwards. SILVER BLEEDS THE BLACK SUN - I've been loving this since it came out. A great love letter to 80's post-punk which has been a sort of hidden ingredient in the band's DNA for a while. I can understand if you got into AFI with Black Sails this is probably not your shit but I really like it.
I’ve been listening or crash love a lot lately and while I liked it fine enough at the time, it’s held up pretty well. Outside of beautiful thieves I like pretty much all of it, and it doesn’t feel nearly as much out of line as it did at the time. I miss Davy really throwing his high vocals around.
That interview with Davey indicated the band really enjoyed writing/recording Crash Love and were definitely stung by the indifferent reception to it.
Finally listening to this aaand I think it's pretty bad. I think I just need to unsubscribe from this band's threads haha, I'm sure I'm just a wet blanket in here, sorrryyyyyy
Had this on repeat for a long weekend in NH/Maine for Haunted Overload and it was a perfect soundtrack
The bonus track is hella interesting. It sounds like it's so close to being a sugarcoated dance track, but then the melody like...warps and melts before it reaches whatever melodic crescendo you might've been expecting.
To me, the new album kind of sounds like if Paul Rudd was in an A24 dramedy about a guy who was in a goth band and they released that goth band’s album as the soundtrack.