#afi discourse

The Blood Album was released a year ago today.

I think, given the last year, I can only fairly rank that album right up with Sing The Sorrow and Decemberunderground in terms of personal significance.

Which is weird, because a year ago today I... didn’t like it.

For a few weeks I think I even told people I knew that it wasn’t that good, because I was dumb and naive and in denial and hadn’t heard any of the songs live yet.

When Snow Cats was released back in late 2016, I didn’t think I was on board. It had such a different vibe to it, but that’s just... what this band has always done, from the beginning. So I gave it a chance. White Offerings was more to my tastes. Then the whole album dropped and I was really on board with Still A Stranger, So Beneath You and Dumb Kids, because they had that heavier, punkier AFI sound that appealed to me.

A few other songs though? For a while, I was lukewarm to them, I have to be honest.

And then.

Then, something in the lyrics and the meaning of Snow Cats hit me. I related to it more than I would’ve liked to, at least the way I interpreted it. Somehow, this band always seems to release songs that I need exactly when I need them, even if I don’t even realize I need to hear that.

And then.

I saw them live. Which, ok, that show (Feb. 1 2017, Danforth Music Hall in Toronto aka my favourite venue in the city since they keep fucking closing all the other ones I like) was like the 10th time or something that I’d seen them but something felt different. The energy was incredible. The new songs sounded amazing live. That night is why I will fight anyone over Aurelia, because it was so beautiful live and I think about that every time I hear it.

I left that show wanting more, which I hadn’t done in a while. I started this blog. When the second leg of the Blood Tour was announced, I knew I had to go again. Which I did, and through those dates and this blog I’ve met some of the best people and had the best time. 

I found myself wanting to listen to the album more and more as the year went on, and I think I get it now and I love it, and it’s so important to me. Still A Stranger will always remind me of the Providence show, when I tried to record it live and forgot to actually hit record because I’m dumb, So Beneath You will always bring me back to New Jersey and the best show of my life, I’ll always appreciate how great Aurelia is live, Snow Cats made me rethink some things in my life I needed to deal with, I’m still determined to one day pull my bass out and learn Pink Eyes because I love that groove so much, and so on and so on.

One year later, I love The Blood Album. If I had to name my favourite AFI albums, at the drop of a hat I might say Art of Drowning or Black Sails because I love those so much, or Sing The Sorrow because that’s when I got into them or Decemberunderground because that was when the love for them hit its peak and was also a great era for me, but now? Blood is always gonna remind me of this last year of my life, and how, as an AFI fan, it’s been pretty great, how even 14 years after I got into them and after so many image and sound changes they’re still out there writing songs I can connect with in a way I can’t for most other bands.