AFI - Burials

AFI - Burials

 

If you've been listening to AFI for a while now you should have already come to never expect the same album twice from the California based band. So if you were hoping for another Black Sails in the Sunset or even another CrashLove, then look elsewhere. The closest previous album is December Underground, even then the differences in style and sound are so pronounced that it's a loose comparison at best. 

AFI fans can take solace in the fact that it is a return to the much more aggressive AFI of old. CrashLove was a very dark album lyrically, however stylistically it was very straight forward and stripped down. Burials does a 360 in terms of production. Everything is much more produced and developed than CL. It feels like they went back to every song and added everything they could without over saturating any of the songs.

The opening song The Sinking Night is dark and haunting. It's some of the best lyrics Davey and the boys have ever written. It starts off at a crawling pace and explodes into an angry chant. If there was a better opener for this album I sure haven't heard it. It sets the tone and the mood perfectly. You know immediately what to expect. The rest of the album follows suit. From straight forward aggressive tunes like I Hope You Suffer that repeats the title over during the chorus, to songs like Greater Than 84 which will have you chanting along and nodding your head to the chords, this album has a lot to offer any listener. There's a few weaker songs that may bore after a few listens but nothing that bogs down the album.

AFI are proof that changing your sound constantly isn't always a bad thing, never a band to just sit still they are continuously managing to out do themselves with each and every album. Considering they've been around for the better part of the last two decades that's no easy feat. They've shown that they're not quite done yet.