A.F.I. - Sing The Sorrow (CD 2003)

If want to add a really excellent album to your collection this is the one! I brought this one after listening to their newest album to date "December Underground" and was really impressed!, its not as heavy as their early stuff but does stand up pretty well to "December Underground" Best tracks on this album include: "Girls not grey" and "This celluloid dream".

hadn't heard of this band until i played rock band 2 on xbox. excellent game, excellent album. if you like rock you should own both

I have been listening to AFI since 'Answer That and Stay Fashionable' and had always loved their unique brand of 'Misfits meets The Cure' darkly emotive punk rock. They always stood out to me as more than just another California underground band, and their development is clear throughout the tenure of their decade-strong career. This album was the one that set them far apart from their peers in my opinion, their diversity glaringly apparent in every track of this CD. AFI's maturity shows - Davey's haunting vocals ranging from a soft whisper to that infamous gutteral scream that only he can pull off with such intensity and Jade Puget's note-perfect and lightning speed solos on tracks like 'Dancing Through Sunday' are more Steve Vai than The Ramones. How many other California punk bands can pull of a soulful acoustic melody like 'The Leaving Song'? There are even hints of electronica in 'Death Of Seasons' - light years ahead of the current emo and 'nu-rave' trends of mixing the genres.
Butch Vig's production skills shine through - his talent for taking even the most abrasive and inaccessible rock and producing a hit single with near-pop sensibilities is unmistakable during tracks like 'Girls Not Grey' and 'Siver and Cold'. This is not to say AFI have 'sold out' - they have simply progressed and become the band they were always meant to be.
Overall, a fantastic album which will have you skipping straight back to the start to listen again after every play, and a perfect prelude to their latest offering, 'Decemberunderground'.