Review Summary: What have we here? An experimental, different and adverse album from one of the most well-established punk bands of our time.
Having been around 17 years, you would have thought AFI may not have had much more to offer us by the time 2006 rolled around. Unless you've been on the moon for the last 3 years, you will have most probably heard
Miss Murder, it was featured on Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Must say something right?) and has been played (Nearly to death unfortunately) on most radio stations and TV Music channels eventually making Decemberunderground AFI's most successful album. It is a step away from Sing The Sorrow, they incorperate screaming and more structure to their songs. It's very hard to find a song that isn't enjoyable here.
To talk more about the band stepping away from previous sounds, simply listening to the minute and a half intro track,
Prelude 12/21, introduces us to what is going to be an interesting and appealing listen throughout. Davey's vocal performance is stronger than much of his previous work. His screams sound scratchy at times and under-practiced but his performance overall is remarkable. He uses the screams quite often in the tracks
Affliction and
Kill Caustic, but these tracks are not disasters as you'd expect from my last comment. The music fits into his voice and he transitions from those screams to near-perfect singing throughout, making
Affliction one of the best songs on the album. Another example of the change are the addition of computer-made sounds, like drum beats and synth use. Most of tracks on this record have one or the other, however the extent of it's use is varied from song to song. The guitars have grown alot since their last release and have become more complex and stronger. To any fan of the band who have known of them before this album, this may sound like a whole new AFI. Most aspects of their sound is different and even the album name has something behind it.
Davey has stated the following about the slightly strange album name:
"Decemberunderground is a time and a place. It is where the cold can huddle together in darkness and isolation."
It gives the impression that he wanted the album to have a slightly darker theme. The album came out sounding somewhat dark, but maybe not as dark as Davey Havok intended. It also seems as if this album began as an experiment but ended as something big and very well done. Perhaps it was these reasons that he went on to do Cex Cells with his side-project Blaqk Audio. The varied sound of Decemberunderground is something that gives it much of its appeal seeing as a lot of AFI's previous records had a punk sound to them, this seems to building it's bridges with metal while retaining a small part of their punk roots.
I can say safely that many of the songs on here are stand-out songs. The bonus tracks seem to be what Davey really wanted from this album, unfortuneately they are not the most appealing songs to be found here.
Head Like A Hole is the last song here and seems to be bridging the gap between Decemberunderground and Cex Cells. Planned or not that is what it feels like. The release of this album brings thoughts of what the next one will be like. It's possible that they may return to the punk roots further and do something for their fans who have been with them since the days of playing small clubs. It's also possible that they will continue with this formula. I strongly doubt that they will give the next one more of a Blaqk Audio feel. It would be in their best interests to stay away from that and keep it as a side project.
So in conclusion, we have seen AFI show their more mature side musically. It shows that they have put a lot of thought, time and effort into this record and from the publicity, it's payed off. This happens to be one of their most structured album yet, but it does leave that one question.
What can we expect from AFI in the coming years?
Best songs:
Endlessly She Said
The Interview
Affliction
