AFI

Emerging from Northern California, the punk group AFI began with hardcore foundations that later absorbed alternative rock, post-punk, emo, and new wave textures. Their entry into broader commercial attention arrived in 2000 through the fifth studio album The Art of Drowning. For the subsequent two decades the band held a central position in contemporary rock by delivering successive high-charting releases such as Sing the Sorrow in 2003, Decemberunderground in 2006, and the 2017 self-titled LP. They kept pushing punk into fresh territory with the 2018 EP The Missing Man and the 2021 full-length Bodies.

The Northern California hardcore punk revivalists AFI formed in 1991 while the four founding members—vocalist Davey Havok, guitarist Markus Stopholese, bassist Vic Chalker, and drummer Adam Carson—were still attending high school in Ukiah. After eight months Chalker gave way to Geoff Kresge, and the group performed several local shows while issuing the split 7" Dork alongside fellow Ukiah band Loose Change, whose lineup at the time included future AFI member Jade Puget. An additional EP titled Behind the Times also appeared. The members then dispersed to separate colleges, Kresge spending time in New Jersey with Blanks 77, yet they reunited during a holiday break for a single show whose strong audience reaction prompted them to abandon their studies and pursue music full-time.

AFI, whose initials stand for “A Fire Inside,” put out several singles before signing with the Nitro label, which released the band’s second album, Very Proud of Ya, in 1996. Two further LPs followed in 1997: a reissue of the 1995 debut Answer That & Stay Fashionable and Shut Your Mouth & Open Your Eyes. Personnel changes soon occurred; Kresge departed first and was succeeded by bassist Hunter Burgan, after which Stopholese left and ex-Redemption 87 guitarist Jade Puget joined, sharing songwriting responsibilities with Havok. The revised lineup recorded the 1998 EP A Fire Inside and delivered the more mature 1999 album Black Sails in the Sunset. That same year also brought the All Hallow’s EP, with The Art of Drowning arriving the next year. Although the band already possessed a devoted core following, the latter record reached an expanded audience, aided by the moderate success of the single “Days of the Phoenix,” and became AFI’s first entry on the Billboard 200.

At the start of the new millennium, AFI collaborated with producers Jerry Finn and Garbage’s Butch Vig. The sessions yielded the ambitious Sing the Sorrow, the band’s major-label debut on DreamWorks, which illustrated substantial evolution beyond its early hardcore period. Issued in 2003, the album marked AFI’s mainstream crossover and eventually achieved platinum certification, supported by the singles “Girls Not Grey” and “The Leaving Song, Pt. II,” both of which gained heavy MTV exposure.

Reuniting with Jerry Finn, who had previously worked with blink-182 and Green Day, the band began work on its next album, an effort that demanded two years of intensive songwriting. Decemberunderground, AFI’s seventh studio release, appeared in 2006 on Interscope. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, prompting an extensive summer tour and subsequent European dates in October. While traveling, Havok and Puget devoted offstage hours to a side project that became Blaqk Audio, which they introduced in early 2007. Later that year AFI issued the live album I Heard a Voice: Live from Long Beach Arena, though individual members also explored outside work, including Hunter Burgan’s bass contributions to other groups and Jade Puget’s remix projects for artists such as the Cure.

AFI reconvened in 2008 to compose new material. By November they had declared plans to record with producer David Bottrill, but two months later they switched to Joe McGrath and Jacknife Lee, emphasizing tracks heavier than those on Decemberunderground. The resulting album, Crash Love, emerged as their most direct rock statement to date and was released in September 2009. It achieved solid commercial results, although it did not match the chart peaks or sales of the prior two records. The band toured extensively throughout 2010 before entering a period of relative quiet. In 2013 they announced the October arrival of Burials. Produced by Gil Norton, the album was preceded by several singles, among them the melodic pop-punk track “17 Crimes.”

Four years elapsed before the next studio album. During the interval Havok and Puget focused on the hardcore side project XTRMST and on Blaqk Audio’s third LP. The self-titled AFI, also referred to as “The Blood Album,” was released in January 2017. It climbed to number five on the Billboard 200 and featured the singles “Snow Cats” and “White Offerings.” While touring in support, the band recorded additional songs that formed the 2018 EP The Missing Man. Issued that December and produced by Puget, the five-track set included the single “Get Dark.”

AFI returned in early 2021 with the singles “Twisted Tongues” and “Escape from Los Angeles,” both of which appeared on the eleventh album Bodies. Released that June, the record extended the group’s later-period development through a blend of synth-driven textures and nostalgic punk drive, evident on further cuts such as “Looking Tragic” and “Dulceria,” the latter co-written with 2018 tourmate Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins.