Music Review: AFI - Burials

 One of the most eagerly-anticipated albums of my life, I spent about 6 months in 2013 tracking this release from the first teaser trailed to the day the postman brought my CD.  It's one of my favourite AFI albums and the darkest one in their discography.  The print of the cover that I got with the album is still framed and on display in my bedroom.  I will never forgive AFI for not touring the UK in support of Burials. 

1. The Sinking Night 💙

A short introductory piece which sets the bleak tone for what's to come.  It's dark and heavy and has a classic 80s goth feel which continues throughout the album.  The lyric 'the gold in my palm was mistaken for sand' feels like a link back to their previous release, Crash Love, which had a gold cover and wasn't received as well as their previous two hit albums; specifically, it reminds me of this Kerrang! photoshoot where their hands are painted gold.

2. I Hope You Suffer 💙

The first song that was released from this album.  It contrasts soft-spoken verses backed up with piano and synthesised beats, with a harsh guitar-led shouted chorus.  The chorus, which repeats 'I hope you suffer' is a very direct statement from AFI, compared to the more veiled and hard-to-decipher lyrics of their past work.  It's clear from this song that the album is going to be devoid of light.  

3. A Deep Slow Panic 💙

Something about this song feels 80s-influenced but I can't put my finger on what it is.  It's another bleak song with no hope allowed but this one has a catchy chorus.  I don't know what happened to Davey Havok when he was writing this album but it must have been really bad for him to release 13 songs like this. 

4. No Resurrection 💙

There's a great bass part driving this song.  I don't have much else to say about it as an individual song; it's one of the less-memorable ones, but I will say that I didn't really get what people mean when they say 'this is an album I can listen to from start to finish' until thinking about Burials - this is one of those albums for me that works best when I sit down and play it all the way through rather than on shuffle.

5. 17 Crimes 🎀

This is the one moment of brightness on the record, and it's one of my favourite AFI songs.  It's a perfect dark pop song with a persistent beat that drags you along and a captivating vocal.  There's a "better enjoy the moment while it lasts because everything after this will be miserable" feel to 17 Crimes which is appreciated here.  At the end everything drops out except the drums and vocals and the song is over all too soon.

6. The Conductor 💜

And the skies cloud back over to leave us in darkness again.  I think this is my favourite intro on the album with the programmed drums and industrial sounds.  The 'warm receiver' lyric is a nice link to Depeche Mode (see their song Sacred) which kindly guided me to notice the DM influence to this song - it reflects the heavier DM songs like Barrel Of A Gun and A Pain That I'm Used To.  Listening now, I've talked myself into seeing this as a highlight of the album even though until now I've thought of it as being on a par with the others.  

7. Heart Stops 🎀
This is, I think, the saddest song AFI have ever recorded, even though it has a big catchy chorus.  I don't know what effect is used on the vocals but it sounds like nothing they've put out before it; it's stripped back and that makes it stand out on the album.  Again it's an 80s pop song but instead of neon brightness it's been soaked in black paint.  In the second verse he places a curse on the person who has wronged him: "may your cruelty find you, may the scars you left in me dig in to you twice as deep" which is simple but scathing.  The only thing I don't like about the song is the guitar sound just before the end - it's got that bad-80s metal squeal to it, but I can excuse it here because the rest of the song is so good.

8. Rewind 💙
Rewind is another song that I don't have a lot to say about.  I can't really make out the lyrics, especially in the chorus, which is a classic AFI thing - there are a lot of misheard AFI lyrics floating about the internet - but it's unusual on Burials as Davey enunciates well elsewhere.  In that respect, the vocal part of this song reminds me of his performance on their first mainstream album, Sing The Sorrow.

9. The Embrace 💙
Another song where he is placing a curse.  This is my least favourite song on the album.  It's not 'worse' than anything else on here, I just don't like the line "walk into traffic" because it reminds me of that horrible Brand New lyric ("have another drink and drive yourself home, I hope there's ice on all the roads") from every girl's MySpace when I was 14.  It's the most electronic song on the album up to this point, the closest to crossing over to the Blaqk Audio side of their musical output.  For some reason I can never remember the title. 

10. Wild 💜
This is the most electronic song on the album, with its dance beat and great electronic sounds (not quite The Disco Sound Effect but not far off) that sound unlike anything they've done before on an AFI album OR a Blaqk Audio one.  Yet it's still a break-up song; chorus: "True love won't be remembered, my regret will last forever".  It doesn't sound like New Order but it has that same 'sad disco' vibe that I mentioned when writing about them previously.  It's a stand-out on the album for me because of the beat and the synth parts.

11. Greater Than 84 💙
The most obvious 80s influence comes in this song when Davey sings the line "the future's here, it's 1985".  The vocal delivery has a bit of voice-cracking sadness in the verses and strength in the chorus.  It reminds me a bit of the Hollywood drama of earlier AFI songs like Kiss And Control with references to the night sky but even though he's calling to a girl to be his queen tonight, it still carries the 'love is hopeless' theme of the rest of the album.  The references to watching meteor showers and the era also feel literary - there's the obvious 1984 allusion but something about it also makes me think of Gen X hero Douglas Coupland and his book Girlfriend In A Coma.

12. Anxious 💜
Following Greater Than 84 this intro sounds slow, like it's trying to catch up to the previous but struggling.  However, this is one of those songs that sounds great when you're playing music on shuffle and that striking vocal intro hits you.  The chorus is a triumph and the verse vocal reminds me of one of the great 80s goth singers but I can't work out who - it could be Danzig or The Cult.  Davey is welcoming death in this song which is uncomfortable but I like the song a lot anyway.  The phrase 'this is a joke' creeps in to the final chorus and I wonder whether it's a comment on the situation he's in or the lyric itself.

13. The Face Beneath The Waves 💙
As far as closing songs go, this is a perfect choice for Burials.  The choice of chords and sounds make it the darkest on a dark album.  The lyrics give us a clearer story about the break-up which led to Davey writing the bleak lyrics which make up the content of the previous 12 songs.  The chorus places a final curse on his ex: "I will return again, I am part of you".  Is it creepy?  Yes, and normally when I hear a lyric like this I wish the man would take the hint and leave the girl alone.  However on this album the words and music fit each other so well and create such a great work that I give this a pass.  At least he doesn't call her a whore like (insert emo frontman of your choice here).  The final doomy industrial notes which sound more like a ship coming in than a musical note takes us back to the intro of The Sinking Night - a full circle just like the eclipse on the cover.

Burials is one of my favourite albums, and as I said earlier, one that I prefer to sit and listen to from beginning to end.  It's one of the bleakest albums I've ever heard so I wouldn't suggest it's perfect for all occasions but if you want to sit in the dark and sulk for a bit, this is the one.