ALBUM REVIEWS

Now for the Canadian band’s third studio album, the order of the day is still raging angst.

Produced by Howard Benson, who also worked on the likes of POD, Creed and Daughtry, the sound of the band hails from a similar strain of generically hard but accessible rock

The 12-track album begins with Bitter Taste, a mid-tempo scorcher with Helmet-like drums, that opens up for a big and heavy chorus before settling into a short and laidback guitar solo midway.

From then on it fluctuates between groovy rhythms like Break and crunchy guitar and pulsating drums in a punk vein like Good Life to straight on softer power ballad excursions like World So Cold, Lost In You, Last To Know and No More.

The boys – main songwriter Adam Gontier on rhythm guitar, Barry Stock on lead guitar, bassist Brad Walst and drummer Neil Sanderson – do a decent job.

Gontier, who gets lyrical about the usual alienation, heart break, disappointment and generally feeling down with a glimmer of hope, sounds a little like Chad Kroeger of Nickelback, which, depending on your taste, would be something good or bad.

A downer would be the mediocre and meandering Who Cares About You, marred further by its clichéd switch to a higher key chorus ending.

But album title track, with its ascending verse chord progression leading to a lifting chorus, is spirited with an ecstasy of melody, nicely ending the whole affair.

The album is loud without being abrasive, tight but a little too clean-cut and never ventures far off from the safe territory of radio-friendly waters. Those looking for a darker Lifehouse or Vertical Horizon take note. — By AREF OMAR

ALTERNATIVE Rock: AFI: Crash Love

A FIRE Inside, or AFI, from San Francisco, labelled “hardcore punk revivalists” by music critics, was formed in 1991 when the guys were still in high school. It’s been 19 years, so the angst has been tempered, going by this eighth studio offering, Crash Love, in contrast to its last album, the 2006’s Decemberunderground.

Crash Love is basically dance music, mixed heavily with rock. The album, for me, is driven by the guitar work by Jade Puget and drums by Adam Carson. Even Hunter Burgan, on bass, carries more weight rather than the vocals of lead singer Davey Havok who just sounds ordinary.

The songs are mostly about relationships gone awry, or not there.

Standouts are Medicate, which seems a very personal ode — “Here with me now as we lose ourselves to us and ignore that you don’t even know my name. Medicate.”

I liked the death-ride tale in End Of Transmission while I’m Trying Very hard To Be Here sounds like Avril Lavigne on a good day, with thankfully solid drum work.

I also liked the drum work on Too Shy To Scream, which chorus goes “I die, if you only met my eyes before you pass by/Will you pause to break my heart?).

AFI’s music will keep you company on a very long ride.

The American Spin Magazine has named them one of the 25 greatest live acts of all time. You can check out AFI on its Soundwave 2010 tour in Sydney and Melbourne next month.