AFI - ‘AFI (The Blood Album)’

AFI’s slow metamorphosis from blood ‘n’ guts horror-punks to purveyors of soft, supple melodies finally hits a sweet middle ground on this, their 10th album.

Songs like ‘Still A Stranger’ and ‘White Offerings’ nod back to their ‘Sing The Sorrow’-era peak, but it’s in the twisting panic of ‘She Speaks The Language’ and gothic sway of ‘Above The Bridge’ that the quartet grasp a dynamic they’ve been seeking for two records now.

This is the sound of a band re-discovering the aggression that made them so great in the first place, and applying it ably to their new template.