AFI (band)

According to Havok, the new album is expected to be released late fall/early winter 2005. The possibility of an Alice in Chains reunion finally ended on April 5th, 2002, when Layne Staley died in his condominium from an apparent lethal overdose of heroin and cocaine, exactly 8 years after the suicide of another icon of the grunge era, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. It will be available in May 2005 at Hot Topic Stores. Although Jerry Cantrell tried to stay in touch with him, and did want to keep the band together, it eventually seemed clear that Staley would never return, and Cantrell launched a solo career. Also Due for 2005 is Glitterboy the new fashion line from Davey Havok and Serious Clothing. Although the band never officially disbanded, Staley spiraled even deeper into a depression from which he would never recover in 1996, when his girlfriend died following a bacterial infection caused by drug use. Rarely leaving his Seattle condo, the frontman became incredibly reclusive. The band claims they well incorprate more 'rock elements' and adapt more of a 'cold-pop' sound with more electronica incorprted into it. Staley was in visibly poor health, but nonetheless the group gave an outstanding performance, including a stunning rendition of "Down in a Hole", and went to great lengths to rework much of their harder material to suit the acoustic nature of the show.

As of March 2005 the band is continuing it work on their new LP which name is still undecided. The group made one final appearance, their first in three years, giving a last show in 1996 when they performed on MTV Unplugged. In fall of 2004, AFI covered The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" for The MTVicon 2004 TV show that aired on MTVEurope and MTV2. Ultimately, this would be the last official album that Alice in Chains produced - though they did write a few new songs after this release, including "Get Born Again", and "Fear the Voices", which can be located on the various compilations. In 2004, AFI covered Nine Inch Nails' "Head Like A Hole" for the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack. Out of the two soundtracks that were released, AFI's cover appeared only on the 2-disc set. The group again didn't support the album with a tour, sparking further discussion about Staley's heroin addiction. Some claim differently but, Davey Havok claims that the meaning of AFI has always been "A Fire Inside.". Once again evolving their sound (as all their releases have), and now relying more on melody and textured arrangements than their previous releases (some see the album as the child of Dirt and Jar of Flies), the record debuted at number one on the charts.

The meaning of the initials "AFI" means A Fire Inside. In November of 1995, Alice in Chains returned with the release of a self-titled album, Alice in Chains, though most fans have taken to referring to the album as "Tripod", due both to a lack of labeling, and the image of a forlorn three-legged-dog which appears on the cover. The website for Blaqk Audio, however is www.blaqkaudio.com. They later renamed themselves Mad Season, and released a single LP, Above. Another project, known as "Blaqk Audio" is Davey and Jade's electronic side project, which not much is known about at this time. The band stayed off the road for the remainder of their run, which once again fueled speculation about Staley's addiction. Nonetheless, Staley performed a few shows with Gacy Bunch, a "Grunge-Super-Group" side-project of his formed in 1995, which included Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready and Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin. One of those was his position as lead vocalist of the punk/metal super group "Son of Sam" which was made up of members of Danzig, Samhain, and Tiger Army as well as Davey. Despite the EP being written and recorded in a single miserable and alcohol-laden week, some critics hailed it as a mini-masterpiece.

Davey has also pursued several side projects. Slowly evolving from the alternative, progressive sound of the first track to more traditional ballads, the record seemed to pay respects to Cantrell's musical roots. Currently he has a solo band Hunter Revenge and is in The Frisk, as well as being in AFI full-time. In striking contrast with "Dirt" - though still containing similar (but more understated) lyrics of self-blame and isolation - "Jar of Flies" consisted of well-developed acoustic pieces, complete with subtle string arrangements, fused perfectly with exclamation points of Cantrell's signature electric-guitar attack. He was in a number of bands, including The Force. 1 on album sales charts, making it the first EP release to ever do so. Hunter, who replaced Geoff (who went on to join Tiger Army), is from Grass Valley in Northern California. Released as an EP, but now widely considered to be of album caliber (and indeed, the design and length would indicate it as almost being that), "Jar of Flies" debuted at No.

Consisting of fans old and young, male and female, the Despair Faction attends every AFI show in its areas. After seeing them perform at Lollapalooza in 1993, the alternative music scene braced itself for another hard, angry, loud release from the Seattle quartet, but when Jar of Flies hit shelves in January, 1994, it stunned fans and critics alike with its wholly uncharacteristic sound. They are followed by a devoted fan base called the Despair Faction. We now know, beyond reasonable doubt, that for the most part these rumors were true. However, many fans feel their latest album Sing the Sorrow which was released on the much larger DreamWorks label on March 11, 2003 displays a different musical approach which has lost some of the punk rock aggression and connected more with its lyrical (and angsty) subject matter. However, the lyrical content of the impenetrably dark record - which dealt mostly with isolation and addiction - stirred speculation that Layne Staley had fallen far into the depths of a serious heroin addiction. On this album, and the following All Hallow's EP (Nitro 1999), other EPs and the seminal The Art of Drowning album (Nitro 2000) their original punk roots were still quite apparent in their musical approach, but more 80s dark rock seemed to appear in the lyrics. Dirt, packed with the group's patented heavy, distortion-drenched sound, was released in the fall of 1992, and was both a critical and a commercial success, going platinum by the end of the year.

Following on from the new approach they had taken on the aforementioned A Fire Inside EP (released on Adeline records) the band recorded their Black Sails in the Sunset (Nitro 1998) a musical turning point. This helped build anticipation for Alice's next LP. After the recording of the A Fire Inside EP in 1998, Mark left the band to be replaced by guitarist Jade Puget, formerly of Redemption 87 and Loose Change, who was critical in forming the band's new sound over the following albums. After releasing a small, unexpected collection of purely acoustic compositions in the form of the Sap EP (including the sole appearance of Alice Mudgarden), the group received more exposure in 1992 when one of their new songs, "Would?", made an appearance on the soundtrack for Singles, a motion picture by filmmaker Cameron Crowe which revolved around the lives of a number of Seattle singles. Over the course of four following LPs, the band has established a dedicated fan-base following and is widely respected as one of the better rock bands of the 1990s. Supported by a tour that saw the band opening for Van Halen and Iggy Pop, "Facelift" would go on to achieve gold status by the close of the year. Shortly after, he became their full-time bassist. The album spawned an unexpected hit with the crunchy and infectious "Man in the Box", the video for which went into regular rotation on MTV.

Their current bassist, Hunter Burgan, formerly of The Force (and currently, also doing the side projects of The Frisk and Hunter Revenge) filled in for Kresge for the tour in support of Very Proud of Ya Hunter perfers to go by the single name Hunter and he helped afi record their album, Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes. The title track became a moderate hit on metal-oriented radio, setting the stage for the release of the group's first full LP later that year, Facelift. Their second album, Very Proud of Ya, was released in 1995 (later re-released in 1996 by the Niro Label), after which their bassist Geoff Kresge decided to leave the group for personal reasons. The group signed with Columbia Records in 1989, and in July of 1990 they issued the We Die Young EP. They released a few independently made vinyl EP's, and eventually released their debut full-length album Answer That and Stay Fashionable in 1995. Staley met and was joined by guitarist and song-writer Jerry Cantrell in 1987, renaming the band Alice in Chains, and, along with two of Cantrell's friends, bassist Mike Starr and drummer Sean Kinney, they began writing original material and playing local Seattle clubs. After reuniting to perform a very successful live show, the members decided to drop out of college and play in the band full-time. Unlike many of their peers, Alice in Chains' sound owed more to heavy metal than punk or 60s rock; what linked them to the grunge movement was their Seattle roots and introspective (and often somewhat morbid) lyrical concerns.

After doing a few live shows in parks and such, AFI broke up while its members moved away to different colleges, including University of California at Berkeley (where Havok began a double major of English and Psychology) and University of California at Santa Barbara. Alice in Chains, initially formed by lead singer Layne Staley (1967-2002) in the mid 1980s as Alice N Chains, was, along with Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, one of the most commercially successful bands to break out of the Seattle, Washington grunge scene. Havok was in the school's choir. Download sample of "Rooster" from Dirt. Adam and Davey played school soccer together, and Adam used his brother's drum kit. AFI formed when the members got bored in between skate sessions.

Formerly a street punk band with slight pop undertones, they recently have been embracing a more deep rock/electronica/industrial sound. Geoff was replaced by Hunter Burgan. Bassist Vic was later replaced by Geoff Kresge. AFI is an American New Wave/Rock band formed in 1991 by Davey Havok(vocals), Markus Stopholese (guitar), Vic Chalker (bass) and Adam Carson (drums) in Ukiah, California.

AFI, Retrospective released on November 2, 2004. "Silver And Cold" 2003 Video-Single (only). 2" 2003 CD/Video Single. "The Leaving Song Pt.

"Girl's Not Grey" 2003 CD/Video Single. Book, CD, and DVD- Clandestine