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A.F.I.: Sing the Sorrow
The sixth LP from bay-area rockers A.F.I. (A Fire Inside), Sing the Sorrow, is the group's first major label release. Sing the Sorrow is an introduction to a band that has been around for over a decade but up until now has only been regarded as cult heros. They have had only two major lineup changes since the birth of the band, yet their sound has changed dramatically. The bands first three LPs are hardcore punk to the nines, and the next two LPs became progressively more melodic with time. In short, the bands history goes from "Oi" to "Whoa-Oh" to just "Oh". Anyone who has followed A.F.I.'s growth will note that their most recent work features choruses of just "Whoa's," but the new era of the band has a subtle "oh" at the beginning of a verse or chorus. Finally, A.F.I. has stopped worshipping the Misfits long enough to create a sound of their own, resulting from their increased comfort with one another as musicians. On Sing the Sorrow, the band spent considerably more time on small details; ironically, this does not result in an album that sounds over-produced. One count of mainstream rock indulgence that AFI is guilty of is making their songs sound too dense at times. Two examples of this are with "Paper Airplanes" and "...But Home Is Nowhere," where the group just tries too hard to sound diverse within the same song. Singer Davey Havoc experiments with different vocal styles throughout the album where at one point in a song, he will showcase his ability to express his lyrics in a ferociously snarling manner, and in the same song he will prove to the listener that he has been taking voice lessons with his shrill but melodic shrieks. While sometimes it works, at other times it comes off as too pristine. "Silver and Cold" and "But Home Is Nowhere" are two instances of trying to meld too many different styles of rock in one song. "But Home is Nowhere" is a bland song with a banal message of, "this is my life, this is eternal." Bon Jovi would be proud. The song picks up halfway through, but there is this misplaced breakdown a third of the way into the song that sounds like some handy guitar work from Faith No More or one of those bands. Another utterly wussy song is "The Leaving Song." It's remarkable that they let this song appear on their album, because if they left it off and then let it resurface twenty years later, fans would eat it up much more. It just doesnt have the same effect now that it could in the future. Another Creed-like mainstream sounding song on the album is appropriately titled "The Great Disappointment," but the album has many more shining moments than disappointing ones. "Bleed Black" and "Dancing Through Sunday" are dependable smash-it-up style songs from A.F.I. The have all of the trademark elements of the classic A.F.I. sound circa Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes up until the present. Of course, the hardcore punk is out the window these days. You won't find anything that sounds like Very Proud of Ya on this release, so try not to be upset the band is heading in a new direction with each album. One direction that they should consider is to lessen the importance of the vocals. Havoc's voice is not the only sound that should be heard on an A.F.I. album, and if vocals are going to be omnipresent, then Havoc can certainly avoid singing back-up and lead at the same time. It sounds contrived, and it will be impossible to recreate live. Two songs on this album that were created for single status are "Girl's Not Grey" and "Celluloid Dream." The chorus in "Girl's Not Grey" is spooky to say the least (What follows will swallow whole. What follows has led me to this place where I belong, with all erased), and you have to wonder where AFI will take their music next time. Both songs are insanely catchy and will establish A.F.I.'s credibility. In the anticipation of this album, many fans speculated on whether or not there would be any industrial/dance elements present. The industrial element can only be found on one song, "Death Of Seasons," but only for about twenty seconds. The fans who wanted to hear more of this style on Sing The Sorrow will just have to wait until the remixes or the tribute albums. It is entirely possible that A.F.I. will shift more toward industrial dance on future albums, but only time will tell. Right now, this is A.F.I's strongest release to date, and this can partly be attributed to the amount of time spent writing and recording the album.
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