Listening to AFI’s latest studio album, “Sing the Sorrow,” gives one the impression they are listening to a clan of swarthy, neo-cavemen who just happen to play the instruments necessary for a rock band. This band, which has been playing and touring since 1992, is releasing this “much anticipated” album amid a flurry of excitement from their fans.
For those who have never heard AFI’s music, there is one unavoidable and definable characteristic: shouting. The first half of this album consists of dramatic melodies, instrumentation and some serious, “hard core” shouting.
It sounds like there are a number of heavyset, manly men standing behind the musicians yelling lyrics and melodies between guitar riffs and lead vocals. Picture the “Braveheart” army crowded into a studio, performing the shouted vocals. The effect is interesting the first time. By the third or fourth song, this motif becomes slightly wearisome.
The lead singer, Davey Havok, has a distinctively nasal voice. Picture Sonny Bono as a heavy metal singer or with an army behind him to shout when necessary. Havok’s voice doesn’t quite fit this hard rock idiom. Maybe the “whiney” thing is in now, but Havok doesn’t pull it off successfully. Sometimes he half-talks/half-sings, sometimes he whines, and sometimes he shouts.
There are a few good moments. A few of the melodies are catchy. The first song, Miseria Cantare, features the shouters, but the melodramatic church bells, slick synthesizer and steady drums form an interesting sound.
There are more than a few moments when the band reeks of the Aqua Net of ’80s hair bands. Poison, Bon Jovi and crew are heard easily among the lines of the flimsy little choruses on this album.
Butch Vig, who has produced for Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins, co-produced the album. A great producer cannot do everything, and it is possible even Butch Vig couldn’t salvage this one.
The lyrics are stuffy and more than a little stale but not completely worthless. AFI likes to use “big words,” but these “big words” stick out awkwardly and sound too deliberate. When AFI stops being pretentious and writes in a less affected style, the lyrics are actually pretty good.
It’s too easy to roll one’s eyes at the über-intensity of this album. Here’s a band that takes themselves very seriously — they think they are Tool. Here’s a band that may have hit their peak five years ago and could lighten up a little bit.
For those who like wild banshee men screaming pretentious lyrics over boring guitar and drum pieces, this may be the album you’ve been looking for.