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Afi bijou wikipedia1/12/2024 Yes, Sing the Sorrow does benefit from the production duo of Jerry Finn and Butch Vig’s nous at making every artist they work with sound skyscraper huge, and the there is definitely a greater number of big, dumb rock hooks on the record, but you cannot argue with the results and the influence of this record decades down the line. While cries of "sellouts!", "fake punk!" and, as one fanzine weirdly christened them, “the hardcore Bon Jovi!” were being bandied about by underground aficionados, AFI were writing some of the best songs of their career. There was something of a backlash when AFI signed to major label Dreamworks and released their sixth album. But closing track God Called in Sick Today is the high watermark of the record perhaps the best song the band have ever recorded, it showed Havok’s abilities wonderfully and hinted at the heights they were capable of scaling in the future. Everywhere you look there are bangers and moments to clench your fists to: the half-time drop during Malleus Maleficarum the hi-hat and gang vocals driving The Prayer Position for a whole chorus before the rest of the band come tumbling back in AFI going DC hardcore for two minutes on Weathered Tome. Havok’s poetic, wailed call of “Through our bleeding, we are one” on the opening Strength Through Wounding genuinely sounded like nothing else the band had managed before, and it set the tone for an album that basically reinvented the horror punk of The Misfits for a new generation. The moment that people really sat up and started to take notice of AFI, Black Sails In The Sunset is where it all really comes together for the first time. As a gateway into alternative music, this is great, but AFI have done better. In Miss Murder, the band also had one of the most inescapable rock anthems of the 2000s. Still, the album is certainly prettier and more polished than the band had ever sounded before, and there are some beautiful moments of shimmering quality. That’s not to say that Decemberunderground doesn’t have some harsh and heavy moments Kill Caustic opens the album proper with punk pace and some throat-shredding Havok vocals, Affliction manages to sound like Rancid, The Smiths and Black Flag all at once, and Summer Shudder might have a big pop hook, but it also has a seriously stompy breakdown. If the 'punk police' were livid at AFI signing to a major and softening their sound three years earlier for Sing The Sorrow, then this was never going to win them back round. Commercially speaking, this is the biggest moment in AFI’s career, giving them a US Billboard number one album and single.
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