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Rating: AFI embody an unusual reality in the crowded American punk & hardcore underground. Starting from an initial punk/hc base, they have reached significant transformations, especially in the last two albums, vigorously approaching rock and increasingly allowing themselves to be influenced by new wave and gothic sounds.
Let's start by saying that "Decemberunderground" is not very different from the previous "Sing The Sorrow," although there has been a further reduction in tempo, to give even more space to melody.
The hardcore shards of songs like "Dancing through Sunday" are almost absent, and the opener (following a mournful intro) "Kill Caustic", a mix of screaming, fast tempos, and gloomy atmospheres, along with the well-executed "Affliction", are appreciated exceptions.
For the rest, we are light-years away from an album of pure punk roots, as this latest effort can be fully classified as a pure rock album.
The single "Miss Murder" shows the more commercial side of AFI, so much so that it is hard to say whether it is a great piece or a pre-constructed cardboard to climb the charts. However, it remains a fairly catchy piece, with perhaps the flaw, consider how serious, of excessive redundancy due to the constant repetitiveness of the choruses (four times in just over three minutes of song) and the final out-of-place screamed part.
In terms of catchiness and appeal, the 2' 47" of "Love like Winter" are no joke either, which, on an almost electronic framework, evokes dark autumnal scenes. Various slow moments are not lacking either, although boring episodes like "Endlessly, She Said" remain totally distant from the emotional charm that a hit like "The Leaving Song Pt. 2" could generate.
Meanwhile, the new course is aptly represented by "Summer Shudder," one of the few that stands above the others, featuring sing-along choruses and a dark shroud enveloping the album that, for a few minutes, flies away.
The rest of the tracks mark a clear departure from the past. And this is where the band shows its weak side with cold pieces like "Kiss and Control" and "37mm", which highlight a blend of genres that is often poorly amalgamated and the true weak point of the work.
A few words on singer Davey Havok as well. While I freely avoid any discussion on his dark look, doubts remain about his various vocal timbres, at times decidedly tedious and unbearable.
"Decemberunderground" follows the path opened by the previous major label release, with all the doubts involved, but those who appreciated the previous one will also like the latest arrival.
However, if a wide audience has an attitude of pure indifference towards them, this is partly understandable. After all, with various Rise Against, early Thrice, and Ignite, to name a few, AFI can comfortably dwell among their ghosts and spirits.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Prelude 12/21 (01:37)
This is what I brought you, this you can keep
This is what I brought, you may forget me
I promise to depart, just promise one thing
Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep
This is what I brought you, this you can keep
This is what I brought, you may forget me
I promise you my heart, just promise to sing
Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep
Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep
This is what I thought, I thought you'd need me
This is what I thought, so think me naive
I'd promise you a heart, you'd promise to keep
Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep
Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep
Kiss my eyes and lay me to... sleep.
02 Kill Caustic (02:40)
So, I'm feeling much worse now.
You're better, you're better.
Your designer drug
won't work, won't work for me.
Connect to a three volt.
I hope your battery dies.
How could you run
on such, on such voltage?
All the same, I remain the one to blame and I'm
demonized, purified, justified as you let yourself show.
So now you'll love these screams,
what's left of me. (Don't speak)
Love these screams like I do. (my name)
As the infinite stops cold
just nine and the six are gone.
Guess I was the one to
ride that, ride that dirty ride
that is turning so fast now
I cannot hold on
but at this pace,
who'd want to, who'd want to?
All the same, I remain the one to blame and I'm
demonized, purified, justified as you let yourself show.
So now you'll love these screams,
what's left of me. (Don't speak)
Love these screams like I do. (my name)
Don't ever speak my name
Don't ever speak my name again
Don't ever speak it
Don't ever speak my name again
Don't speak
Don't speak
DON'T
SPEAK
MY
Don't speak my name.
So, now you'll love these screams,
what's left of me. (Don't speak)
Love these screams like I do. (my name)
03 Miss Murder (03:30)
Hey Miss Murder, can I
Hey Miss Murder, can I
Make beauty stay if I
take my life?
Ohh, Ohh, Ohh
With just a look they shook
And heavens bowed before him.
Simply a look can break your heart.
The stars that pierce the sky,
He left them all behind.
We’re left to wonder why
He left us all behind.
Hey Miss Murder, can I
Hey Miss Murder, can I
Make beauty stay if I
take my life?
Dreams of his crash won’t pass.
Oh, how they all adored him.
Beauty will last when spiraled down.
The stars that mystified,
he left them all behind
and how his children cried.
He left us all behind.
Hey Miss Murder, can I
Hey Miss Murder, can I
Make beauty stay if I
take my life?
What's the hook, the twist within this verbose mystery?
I would gladly bet my life upon it
that the ghost you love, your ray of light will fizzle out
without hope.
Uhaaa
We're the empty set just floating through, wrapped in skin,
ever searching for what we were promised...
Reaching for that golden ring we'd never let go...
Who would ever let us put their filthy hands upon it?
Hey Miss Murder, can I
Hey Miss Murder, can I
Make beauty stay if I
take my life?
Hey Miss Murder, can I
Hey Miss Murder, can I
Make beauty stay if I
take my life?
04 Summer Shudder (03:09)
Listen when I say, when I say it’s real.
Real life goes undefined, why must you be so missable?
Everything you take, makes me more unreal.
Real lines are undefined, how can this be so miserable?
Under the summer rain I burnt away
Under the summer rain (burn!) you turned away
Listen, I can't make, make a sound or feel
Feel fine, I kissed the lies. Why must they be so kissable?
Listen as I break, break the fourth wall's seal.
Gorgeous eyes shine suicide, when will we be invisible?
Under the summer rain I burnt away
Under the summer rain (burn!) we burnt away
Under the summer rain I burnt away
Under the summer rain (burn!) you turned away
This is the fall, this is the long way down
And our lives look smaller now, and our lives look so small.
This is the fall, this is the long way down
And our lives look smaller now, and our lives look so small.
Under the summer rain I burnt away
Under the summer rain (burn!) we burnt away
Under the summer rain I burnt away
Under the summer rain (burn!) we burnt away
Under the summer rain (burn!) I burnt away
Under the summer rain (burn!) you turned away
05 The Interview (04:21)
Forever waiting for disaster.
What David calls servant and master,
will you play it too?
As this displacement begs for water,
swimming, bathing,
drowning in sorrow,
scream with me.
I crawl across this cracked expansion.
I'll be buried soon
beneath the sand with pure intentions,
wanting something, someone to follow.
For a change I'll refrain
from hiding all of me from you.
Here's my lullaby...
Pray for rain, lose your name
and watch all your dreams fall through.
Hush now don't you cry.
I swoon upon my knees come crashing.
Will you bury me?
Today, this small favor I'm asking.
Hold me. You may drop me tomorrow.
For a change I'll refrain
from hiding all of me from you.
Here's my lullaby...
Pray for rain, lose your name
and watch all your dreams fall through.
Hush now...
For a change I'll refrain
from hiding all of me from you.
Pray for rain, lose your name
and watch all your dreams fall through.
Here's my lullaby.
Hush now don't you cry.
Calm down.
Come down, cold resides with me.
I flee to, I flee to decemberunderground. As you exhale
I breathe in and sink into the waterunderground
and I'll grow pale without you.
06 Love Like Winter (02:49)
Warn your warmth to turn away.
Here it's December every day.
Press your lips to the sculptures
and surely you'll stay (Love like winter)
for of sugar and ice, I am made, I am made.
It's in the blood, it's in the blood.
I met my love before I was born.
He wanted love. I taste of blood.
He bit my lip and drank my warmth
from years before, from years before.
She exhales vanilla lace.
I barely dreamt her yesterday, yesterday.
Read the lines in the mirror
through the lipstick trace "Por Siempre".
She said, "it seems you're somewhere far away" to his face.
It's in the blood, it's in the blood.
I met my love before I was born.
She wanted love. I taste of blood,
She bit my lip and drank my warmth
from years before, from years before.
Love like winter, oh, oh...
Love like winter, winter... 3,4
It's in the blood, it's in the blood.
I met my love before I was born.
He wanted love. I taste of blood.
He bit my lip and drank my warmth
from years before, from years before.
07 Affliction (03:39)
Every night devise
new heights in genocide.
Lover, I am loveless.
All my friends and I
toast health and suicide.
Lover, I am lonely.
Were you holding hands when
my palms bled?
Oh, I will be all right...
just use me, just use me.
The future's bright without me.
Spend some time walking the line.
World is unified.
Ennui, and I divide.
Lover, I am loveless.
Red days and burning might
bleed till, till the faceless die. Oh,
Lover, I am lonely
Were you holding hands when
my wrists bled?
Oh, I will be all right...
just use me, just use me.
The future's bright without me.
Spend some time walking the line,
Spend some time walking the line.
So stay sweetly numb.
Remain lifeless, love.
So stay sweetly numb.
Maintain lifeless love.
stay sweetly numb.
Remain lifeless, love.
Oh, I will be all right...
just use me, just use me.
The future's bright without me.
Spend some time walking the line,
Spend some time walking the line.
09 Kiss and Control (04:18)
Watch the stars
Turn you to nothing.
Now blush and smile as they whisk you away.
Part your lips a bit more,
I'll swallow your fear.
I will show you how
All the bite marks impress
A need to be here,
A need to see
City lights, like rain,
Dance and explode.
Fall upon debutantes
Reeling from nights that
Kiss and Control,
All of our broken hearts.
Velvet burns
The wrists while restraining.
You blushed and smiled,
And said you would stay.
One more time steal my breath,
I'll feed you the sky,
I will show you how.
Steal the glamour from death,
And before you die,
Then you should see
City lights, like rain,
Dance and explode.
Fall upon debutantes
Reeling from nights that
Kiss and Control,
All of our, broken hearts.
All our hearts,
All our hearts.
"We all wanna die like movie stars," you said,
As you jumped from the height of our cutting room floor.
While above us glowing, exploding, our dreams burst forth in light and death.
Hold me and tell me we'll burn like stars, we'll burn as we fall,
Watch as city lights dance for us..
City lights, like rain,
Dance and explode.
Fall upon the pain of our lives,
Reeling from nights that
Kiss and Control,
Fall upon the pain of our lives.
Dance and explode.
City lights like rain, City lights so caress me
Kiss and Control
All of our, broken hearts.
11 37mm (03:57)
Bring your secrets to me.
Just give me your hands
and I’ll let you feel the wounds
they put in me.
If you believe in me, how can I be dissolving?
If you'd believe me, I’d tell you everything.
Do you fall too? (Every time that I)
Yes, I fall. (Every time that I)
Do you want to (try to pacify)
fall into me? (fall into me, fall into me)
Into me
Silence can you hear me?
Press me to your lips and I'll suck the poison out.
Who will heal me?
Me...
If you keep killing me, how can I keep absolving?
Your sins into me, begin the poisoning.
Do you fall too? (Every time that I)
Yes, I fall. (Every time that I)
Do you want to (try to pacify)
fall into me? (fall into me, fall into me)
Into me
Time, time, time, we're not waiting.
Time, time, time, we're no one.
(I fall... I fall...)
Do you fall too? (Every time that I)
Yes, I fall. (Every time that I)
Do you want to (try to pacify)
fall into me? (fall into me)
Do you fall too? (Every time that I)
Yes, I fall. (Every time that I)
Do you want to (try to pacify)
fall into me? (fall into me, fall into me)
Into me
We are no one
[repeat]
12 Endlessly, She Said (04:30)
[Whispering]
Walked into our world and made
Horrible sounds.
I can still hear them today
[Strangely they seem]
Beautiful now,
Though they outlast my love.
Still each time I always meant,
Every word,
Every one.
Though in time they finally bent,
Every word,
Every one.
Every word.
"I will wait for you." She said,
"Endlessly."
"I will wait for you." So spoke,
Misery.
I returned to you but found,
My empty home.
The radio told me to stay.
[as it burned out]
I sang alone.
You will outlast my love.
Still each time I always meant,
Every word,
Every one.
Though in time they finally bent,
Every word,
Every one.
Every word.
"I will wait for you." She said,
"Endlessly."
"I will wait for you." So spoke,
Misery.
Oh.
I have been waiting for you,
Biting as you taught me to.
I have come to relieve you,
Of life and love.
I will wait for you.
I will wait for you.
I will wait for you.
I will wait.
I will wait.
"I will wait for you." She said,
"Endlessly."
"I will wait for you." So spoke,
Misery.
"I will wait for you"
Wait for you,
"Endlessly."
"I will wait for you."
So spoke.
So spoke,
Misery.
I will bite straight through.
As I wait for you
Dear,
Endlessly.
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By spookyvincent
"Decemberunderground is an excellent work, full of inspiration and class."
"The universe of AFI is much more than just music, because... it is the lyrics that make the difference."
