A Fire Inside

AFI's new album Decemberunderground came out this month. It had been over three years since their last release and I was getting itchy.

Three years is a long time to wait, but it is now here, and it was well worth it. I knew they weren't going to let us down, but they exceeded even my expectations, and for the past nine days just about nothing else has entered my CD player.

I have talked to a lot of AFI fans during the past couple months. A lot of times people would tell me that they hope that the new CD will sound like one of their old albums; Black Sails in the Sunset is the one most often mentioned. This does not make me happy. You should want your bands to push themselves, and if they are, their sound will be a little different everytime. They should not digress into something they have already accomplished. And to those of you who get mad at artists for not "sticking to their roots," go fist yourselves because you don't know what you are talking about. AFI has yet again succeeded in taking a couple more steps in the right direction.

A couple of days ago I was driving home from work through a summer thunderstorm that we tend to get in June, and listening to "Summer Shudder." There is a lyric in the chorus that goes, "Under the summer rain, we find a way." It was clear to the west, the sun was setting and the sky was a bright white. Those are my favorite types of sunsets. It was a really cool moment; one where you can't help but think to yourself that life is good. Everything just fit.

So, as long as they keep making records of this caliber, and showing the love they have for their fans on tour, and helping to keep the flood behind from putting out the fire inside of us, we will be more than happy to wait endlessly for every word, every one.