After teasing earlier this month that their 11th studio album would be released by the end of the year, the quartet made good on their guarantee of new music “soon” by releasing “Twisted Tongues” and “Escape From Los Angeles” this morning.
The two tracks pick up where the band left off following 2017’s self-titled release (also known as The Blood Album) and the aforementioned EP from the following year, with Davey Havok and his longtime crew fusing some experimental new steps into the tried and true AFI formula.
It’s no surprise given the band’s evolution from borderline hardcore punk in the ’90s all the way through the emo movement of the 2000s and now blossoming into one of the most distinct and recognizable sounds today.
Also celebrating their 30th anniversary as a band (still with two founding members and no one new added to the group since 1998), 2021 figures to be a big year for the legendary act — particularly after their festival-headlining plans of 2020 were interrupted by the pandemic.
Check out the new tracks below.
“As I recall, ‘Twisted Tongues’ came of the Blood era and was the first piece of music we explored on the new album,” vocalist Davey Havok explains. “The dreaminess of the music lyrically inspired themes of unforeseen severance. It is a pining song of being set adrift by those who once feigned to share the same anchors.”
“Los Angeles, like most of my loves, is imbued with a darkness and radiance,” Havok continues. “Musically, ‘Escape from Los Angeles’ called for my own vantage to this classic theme of the city’s dichotomous allure.”
Anyone who knows our catalogue knows that no two records really sit together” adds guitarist Jade Puget. “Some sit a little closer, maybe. We do certain things, just by virtue of who we are, that are consistent, but those things come about organically.
Every time we do something, I have to judge it on its own merits. Some fans are going to judge a new album, or a new song, based on what’s come before. But as artists, we can’t do that, because it would only hinder our creativity.”
A limited 7″ of both tracks can be purchased on this link.
Oran O’Beirne
www.overdrive.ie 2021
