This is a collection of some of AFI’s finest material from the golden years when they were signed to Nitro. It spans the years of 1995-2000 and there will doubtlessly be countless squabbles amongst fans of the band about how their favourite AFI track was not included in the CD, but quite frankly AFI just have way too many good songs to include them all on this Nitro archive album. This CD contains 15 songs of the bands finest moments and clocks in at just less than 40 minutes. This release is more for the newer fans of the band that fell in love with them after ‘Sing The Sorrow,’ because those that have been fans of the band since the very beginning probably already own the majority, if not all of this material.
Such classics are present on this CD as ‘I Wanna Get a Mohawk’ ‘The Days of the Phoenix,’ and ‘The Lost Souls.’ The latter two of course taken from the bands successful album ‘The Art of Drowning’ and ‘I Wanna Get a Mohawk’ from the bands highly influential debut album, ‘Answer That and Stay Fashionable.’ The album is pretty much in chronological order running from newest to oldest material, apart from ‘I Wanna Get a Mohawk’ which they have seemingly chosen to place as the 12th track on the CD. The CD has some interesting choices for inclusion on the CD, and as I have already said should provide quite a good idea of what the band were once like for those that only discovered the band after their 2003 release ‘Sing The Sorrow’ on Island Records.
So, if you are a new fan of the band then you will probably want to check this album out as the old AFI material (when they were a credible Hardcore band) is a hell of a lot better than their newer stuff. However, if you already own the bands Nitro back catalogue then this probably isn’t worth buying as aside from the few rarities on display here that you’ve probably acquired some way or another anyway everything is readily available on the old albums and EPs. For me, listening to the AFI Retrospective has been a great nostalgic experience and certainly reminded me of the good times that were once had with this once awesome, now average band.
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UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.
