Track Listing

1. Miseria Cantare--The Beginning
2. The Leaving Song Pt. II
3. Bleed Black
4. Silver and Cold
5. Dancing Through Sunday
6. Girl's Not Grey
7. Death of Seasons
8. The Great Disappointment
9. Paper Airplanes (Makeshift Wings)
10. This Celluloid Dream
11. The Leaving Song
12. ...but home is nowhere
13. Now The World (UK Bonus Track)
14. Synthesthesia (UK Bonus Track)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19540 in Music
• Released on: 2003-03-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks
• Dimensions: .23 pounds
• Running time: 63 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Starting life as the most competent Misfits tribute band to not actually play Misfits songs, San Francisco Bay Area punks AFI have not only discovered how to write their own snarling melodies, but have developed the confidence to play them. Sing the Sorrow marks the band's first major-label release and the difference from their indie albums is in the details: songs freely shift gears and tempos, singer Davey Havoc flexes his pristine vocal abilities by breaking into the occasional falsetto and sugary tracks like "The Leaving Song" and "The Great Disappointment" now take a place next to more standard nuclear-charged mosh-pit fare like "Bleed Black" and "Dancing Through Sunday". Longtime fans might take it like a kick to the head, but this band is clearly moving toward bigger things. --Aidin Vaziri

CD Description
Sixth album from San Francisco goth-punks and their first for major label Dreamworks. Refining and expanding on their dark, powerful rock sound, the album includes strings, piano,acoustic balladry and even some electronic elements. Spending longer than ever in the studio, this time with rock super-producers Butch Vig and Jerry Finn, in an effort to get thealbum just right, they have produced what is being hailed as their finest work to date.

Customer Reviews

Bleed Black
After seeing afi live at reading this year their music began really sink into me. I already owned 'sing the sorrow' and loved it, however, after seeing them live you realise the incredible sincerity of both afi and their fanbase, bordering on a cult following. As you listen to opening track 'miseria cantare' picture a stage obscured by smoke and as the drums rise to a climax and a thousand people chant 'Love, your hate, Your, faith lost, You are now one of us' as Davey Havoc vocals soar gloriously above them. Which brings me onto the album. Starting good and getting better 'sing the sorrow' is a beautiful creation. With songs such as 'the great disapointment', '...but home is nowhere' and, for me, stand out secret track 'this time imperfect' afi have done the impossible and equalled or bettered the excellent 'the art of drowning'. With intricate lyrics and melodie rising to anthemic choruses 'sing the sorrow' is and album about the sadness of life, about grey and black, of death and all that is beautiful yet horrible in this world. It is about sharing the sadness to create something greater and strangly enough is incredibly uplifting. Now go out, buy it, and send hate mail to evanescence for being fakes.

This album will spawn new life for all ye who dare enter
When you're playing a style of music that doesn't really fit anywhere, you run a risk. You're challenging people to leave their niche, to leave their predetermined ideas of what they're supposed to like. Luckily, we have a lot of people who just focus on the music and appreciate us for what we are. So we get fans from all different genres of music, the jocks, the spooky kids, skaters, college kids, punk rockers, hardcore kids, metal kids, all that" – Davey Havok

Ambience. Boom. An Echo. Ambience. Boom. Echo. Boom. Echo. Boom. Echo. Synth Tune Kicks In. Boom, Drums, chanting, bells chime and the gothic plea cries out ‘Nothing From Nowhere I’m No One At All, Radiate, Recognise one silent call as we all form one dark flame… INCINERATE. Love your hate, your faith lost. You are now one of us’.
And thus goes the opening to the most under publicised, most deserving, most amazing album of the year which spans 1 hour 3 minutes and 39 seconds. This band is by no means the kindest on the ear. Davey’s voice is hugely powerful, but slightly whiny and perhaps a little too hardcore at times for some, but certainly with the variety of uses to which he puts his voice, speaking, singing, screaming, whispering, there is a little something for everyone, except maybe people who refuse to appreciate anything that isn’t in the top ten, most of which is only there because it is manufactured rubbish which is promoted simply by the money pumped into them, the positive press etc. This is a fact which Davey himself points out in the quote which tops this page. AFI are a band who have spent over a decade on the underground circuit, getting whatever they get solely from the sheer quality of their music (although their earlier stuff isn’t so accessible until you really get into the AFI sound, which is displayed in every form on this album. You have new styles showing through with the electronica/techno breakdown of ‘Death Of Seasons’, or the moody number that is ‘Silver And Cold’, while still remaining faithful with tracks like ‘Bleed Black’ with chord transitions that’d knock your grandma dead. The lyrics are another powerful strong point of the album. The tenth track is so packed with metaphors such as ‘All the colours upon leaving will turn to grey’ suggesting that no matter how hard one tries to differ and be an individual, or be a colour, we all end up dead, or a shade of grey, and thus it may not be worth quite what you think to be ‘different’ from the crowd. A little bit of blending can be a good thing. In fact this particular metaphor leads very nicely to the following track ‘the leaving song’, a story of a man who has gone out of his way, and been labelled and ostracised for it. Something that many people can relate to at some stage in their lives. The song goes as follows, accompanied by a single acoustic guitar:

Walked away, heard them say
"Poison hearts will never change, walk away again"
Turned away in disgrace
Felt the chill upon my face cooling from within

It's hard to notice gleaming from the sky
When you're staring at the cracks
It's hard to notice what is passing by with eyes lowered

You... walked away, heard them say
"Poisoned hearts will never change, walk away again"

All the cracks will lead right to me
And all the cracks will crawl right through me
All the cracks, they lead right to me
And all the cracks will crawl right through me, and I fell apart

As I... walked away, heard them say

"Poisoned hearts will never change"
Walked away again
Turned away in disgrace
Felt the chill upon my face cooling from within

This is a song, which is both downbeat but beautiful, slow yet catchy. Once again not for the narrow-minded mainstreamers, but definitely an amazing song.

The final track on the album ‘…but home is nowhere’, which is a good note to end it on, if a little disappointing in comparison to the rest of the album (but is improved on fantastically by the hidden 10 minute bonus track ‘this Time Imperfect’). However if you are lucky enough to live in the UK you find yourself with two more tracks, ‘Synthesthesia’ and ‘Now The World’. Both of which once again raise the standard of modern music even higher. In fact, everything about this album raises the standards. It is very much a certain type of music and not for everyone to adore, but it is an album which a hater of guitar music can listen to and say ‘Well that wasn’t as bad as a thought’. Clearly, this is an album that deserves to be in many more HI-FI’s shelves than it has been on since it’s release in March 2003, and if you’ve never heard these guys before, you will not be disappointed, even for having to part with £15, in fact, I truly believe that it is the best £15 I have ever spent. In fact, I would have gladly paid more. I would have traded every other CD I own just to sing the sorrows along with Davey, Jade, Hunter and Adam. Lost, confused, bored even? Buy this Album.

Fantastic!
This is AFI's long awaited 6th LP release and their first on a major label. As AFI fans know, their first 3 albums were white knuckle punk offerings, and, on their 4th LP AFI went Goth, with a much darker (but still punk) sound, producing the fantastic "Black Sails in the Sunset". They followed up with "The Art of Drowning" which for me, was a little dissapointing.

"Sing the Sorrow" is a great return for AFI...but its important to not that AFI's sound has changed yet again...this is NOT A PUNK RECORD. While undoubtedly heavy by most people's standard it doesn't have the fast viscious sound that old AFI albums had. Luckily they back it up and every song is great. Opener "Miseria Cantare" (The Beginning) sets the tone for the album, with a bell toll and the lyrics "Love! Your Hate! Your! Faith Lost! You! Are Now! One! Of Us!" "The Leaving Song Part 2", "Silver and Cold", Bleed Black" and first single "Girls Not Grey" are all great songs with shouty-Black Sails style choruses. The only 2 songs that come close to the ferocity of AFI's old albums are "Dancing Through Sunday" and "Death Of Seasons", also both fantastic tracks. These are followed by the awesome "Paper Airplanes,Makeshift Wings" the only two tracks on the album which I did not think were quite as good were "The Great Dissapointment" which sounds slightly out of place on the album and "This Celluloid Dream" which just did'nt click for me.

The last two tracks will be liked by anyone who thought "God Called In Sick Today" from Black Sails.. was a great song. "The Leaving Song" and "...but home is nowhere" fits well at the end of the album and again, are both strong songs...Two UK bonus tracks "Synthesthesia" and "Now the World" are pretty good, however not as strong as the majority of the songs on the album....after this are 2 secret songs (16 songs total on the album)..a weird untitled spoken word track with lead singer Davey Havok, what sounds like a young girl and what sounds like The Hunchback of Notredame :) after this comes closer "This Time Imperfect"...this is easily one of the best songs AFI have written...I can only describe it as completely enchanting on every level...

No doubt Punk purists will accuse AFI of "selling out" or "going mainstream" but AFI never confessed to being a "Punk" band in the first place, and it seems like the majority or true AFI fans love this masterpiece of an album, while its not totally perfect, it comes very close, Davey's vocals are clearer, proving he can really sing. I can only give the highest reccomendation, some of the ending songs are so beautiful I was close to tears..