AFI are set to release their latest album AFI (The Blood Album) on January 20 via Concord. The US alt-rock quartet have gone multi-platinum throughout their career and there has been high hopes for their latest record.
Opening track Dark Snow is very drum heavy during the beginning instrumental and is a good pick to start the album off with. Still A Stranger’s first few bars have an acoustic feel before the drums and a riff kick in. Davey Havok’s vocals are strong and fit into the melody well. This is one of my favourite tracks on the record. Aurelia has haunting vocals and the fade out of “sing along” at the end adds a nice touch. Get Hurt doesn’t really do anything for me, it’s a decent track but in my opinion, one of the weaker ones, with a pretty basic guitar line until the mid-section and there is a pretty decent riff. The track gets better from about 2 minutes in but it didn’t grab me from the start. Above the Bridge is very lyrically haunting and the emotions are clear in Davey’s vocals.
Snow Cats is one of the tracks lifted from the album. It is atmospheric and reels you in from the start, the verses have very basic instrumentation which increases towards the chorus and this puts a lot of attention on the vocals. Pink Eyes is drum focused and the chorus is atmospheric with its “woahs” backing vocals.
Throughout the album, Davey’s vocals change well to suit each track. There’s lots of good guitar work from Jade Puget and a strong focus on the drum/bass combo of Adam Carson and Hunter Burgan respectively. This is a very strong record from one of the most loved acts in the alternative scene and fans will not be disappointed.