AFI’s latest yardstick shows that underground emo is unfortunately no longer a minimalist trend
Written: Jul 26 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The 'fire inside'... or, as they themselves would say, 'what's left of it'
Cons: Everything about it is recycled and has been done before, tacky
The Bottom Line: As someone who hasn't heard any of AFI's other work, I can't tell you how disappointed I am with this CD.
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| blackstar40's Full Review: Decemberunderground by AFI |
You can just picture first hearing AFI (fyi: A Fire Inside) in 2003 with a minor rock hit. I forgot them as one of those rather faceless emo acts that would never really get a name for themselves, left them alone for three years, and suddenly they’ve got a number one album that everyone’s digging! So obviously I’m not familiar with Sing the Sorrow, their previous effort, but there’s already those who are saying that Decemberunderground is broader in some ways from its predecessor.
There’s also a number of the band’s hardcore fanbase who will try to convince you that they’re ‘not emo,’ but really they are. Lead singer Davey Havok’s outlandish, disturbing vampire look should be enough proof (he’s sure not a person you’d choose to be in the same room as) and words like kill, murder, affliction and control spatter the titles. They’re the product of better underground emo bands like Subseven and Falling Up. They’re the inspiration for the also more vivacious My Chemical Romance. And they’re the flipside of what’s perceived to be mainstream emo-pop like Taking Back Sunday and Yellowcard.
But, while Decemberunderground is broad on levels of material, and whatever it’s meant to mean to describe a song, and the band flirt loosely with electronica throughout its contents, there’s not enough believability in their all-black outfits to persuade me that AFI should be anything worth all the attention they’re getting.
Anyway, after an extremely pointless intro falsetto jingle devoid of any relevance whatsoever to anything else, the group tear into what is unhesitantly the album’s best material – ‘Kill Caustic.’ If the surly opening screams don’t aggravate you into trying to make you think they’re ‘hardcore,’ it’s so energetically tense and short-lived, the least corny of the punnet. And kindly, Havok lets guitarist Markus Stopholese, who often plays the part of ‘the prop,’ show off his skills with a quirky solo.
That is why it’s important to stop seeing ‘Miss Murder’ as a competent rock-restoring song and realize it as bland pop that’s lows haven’t been stooped to since Limp Bizkit ruled the Earth. Besides that its opening riff is jacked nearly directly off Green Day’s ‘Holiday,’ (allmusic.com picked that up too) I – honestly – have never heard a song that tries so hard to be hooky, yet rubs inevitably off as the mishmash of a pup chant. Perhaps the fact it’s banal and tuneless as hell might also have something to do with it. However, at least it semi-facelifts itself in the last quarter for a change of tempo, showcasing a band at least trying to step outside their comfort zone.
You know the flickering potential of Decemberunderground (the ‘fire inside’ if you will) goes out after that, because at that stage they dump in overbearing synthesizer whore-outs. ‘Summer Shudder’s tacky motif could relate with a nursery rhyme, a far cry from the ‘diverse and mature’ claims other reviews have made, and ‘The Interview’ practically takes the shrill, wispy melody of the former and recycles it to within an inch of its life! Admittedly, the innocently languid chorus and cool guitar tricks of ‘Love Like Winter’ is catchy, but it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before.
So in some ways, ‘Affliction’ is a good thing – it at least regains some of the energy of the previous cuts, but its scream-vocal mix seems just to flounder and go nowhere, and the extravagant last hundred-and-twenty seconds don’t help maintain the precious momentum (nor the pointless ‘talk box,’ one of one too many on the disc cut and pasted in ‘Kiss And Control’). The alternating ‘oohs’ pinned on the back of ‘The Missing Frame’s light cymbal base would feel right in place next to The Killers’ trite pop whiff ‘Mr. Brightside.’ And just when you think every overlong thing has reached its eye-rolling zenith, out primly trots ‘Kiss And Control,’ the most soppy throwback, soft-loud patdown, ‘epic ballad’ potshot in a long time. There are a couple more that are nearly as ugly: tuneless, industrial mediocrity in ‘37mm,’ another that can be complimented on how easy it makes shooting yourself in the head sound, and ‘Endlessly She Said.’
Then of course there’s the bonus tracks you get if you’re willing to shell out more cash to satisfy your darkest hours of recluse – one is ‘Rabbits Are Roadkill on Route 37,’ their single from last year, a completely by-the-numbers AFI song with nothing outstanding going for it, yet a better option to close than ‘Endlessly She Said,’ and the other is a cover of NIN’s brainchild ‘Head Like A Hole.’ It’s a well-worn cliche of individualism and every other asset AFI wants you to think they have in hand, but the guitar hook is so rambunctious you kinda wish Trent Reznor could come up with something this cool. Of course, the thin vocal line makes for a deafetedly shallow listening experience.
Now, mark my words: I have no problem with sitting through the most emotional outings. In fact, I feel it is underappreciated and that a certain amount of basic lyricism can be excused with it. The problem with this is that it doesn’t seem to contain any redeeming factors as such for the pretentiously gothic and glum quips, and that AFI’s mouthpiece whines its way through without backing it up. The static that overrides their lead singer when he steps much past his limited alto range suggests he’s also not much of a singer. Imagine going to a concert and sitting through the suds of a bunch of these gracelessly un-atmospheric tracks. Oh, what agony that must be. All in all, I must draw the conclusion that the album Decemberunderground is not a time and place of isolation. It’s one of the most stagnant, exasperating records of the year.
1.5 stars from me also...
Track List
(members in bold may be of some interest to you)
1. Prelude 12/21
2. Kill Caustic
3. Miss Murder
4. Summer Shudder
5. The Interview
6. Love Like Winter
7. Affliction
8. The Missing Frame
9. Kiss And Control
10. The Killing Lights
11. 37mm
12. Endlessly She Said
13. Rabbits Are Roadkill on Route 37
14. Head Like A Hole (Nine Inch Nails cover)
Recommended:
No
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blackstar40
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