Hi folks, nice to meet you

Introductions
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I’m probably unique on here in that I’m in my 30’s but I’ve only been an AFI fan since last year. That’s probably hard to get your head around, but if you’re interested then this is how I got here.

I was brought up in the eighties on the Beatles and the Beach Boys, courtesy of my parents. As I grew I was subjected to all the genre’s that made up the music of that decade and of course the years that followed. At the age of 12, living in England my major influences were British bands including Stone Roses, Charlatans, Levellers, PWEI and Oasis. At the age of 14 when AFI were releasing their first album, I was introduced to Nirvana’s Nevermind, and my life was changed as I was swept away in a new direction, made new friends with similar tastes, at 17 we started frequenting the only rock club in town; three floors playing punk, new wave, indie and all the degrees of metal. My tastes changed and refined and grew, discovering bands both old and new, yet somehow forever missing any exposure to AFI.

Around 2003 I spent most of my time listening to The Clash, System of a Down, Placebo, The Misfits and Bad Religion. I then met the girl who would become my wife. She owned Sing the Sorrow and I even remember listening to Girl’s not Grey in her room. But still the connection was not made.

Skip forward to 2017. I haven’t heard anything that really speaks to me in over a decade, and I set myself the task of finding a newly released album to buy that could reignite my musical passions. I scour the names of new releases, check out youtube clip after youtube clip of new singles and nothing is right. Until…White Offerings. I watched it again. And again. And again. The sound. That voice. The energy.

I listened to Snow Cats and Aurelia and I knew this was the album I needed. I bought it and listened to it and devoured it and needed more.

To date I now have all the albums, but have only listened to the Blood Album and Answer that…
I have been tempted to dive right in and listen to everything, but I want to do the albums justice and experience them fully in order and feel how they change and develop for myself.

I am deeply saddened already that this band weren’t part of my life since I was 14. I am sure they would have been some of my best friends in harder times. But I am excited to finally meet them and get to know them one album at a time.

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Welcome to the forums! And…unique? Not so much :slight_smile: I’m 40 years old…listen to Punk since I was 14…but only became an AFI fan about 4 years ago…not sure about the rest…I’m pretty bad at guessing ages :frowning: Specially by just looking at photos :slight_smile: But I know we have pretty young and not so young members :stuck_out_tongue:

I like your style of listening to certain albums instead of listening to all of them at once…I kind of started the same way :slight_smile: I started with Sing the Sorrow and Decemberunderground…then moved to Crash Love and The Art of Drowning…the rest came along :slight_smile:

Anyway…glad to have you here and hope to hear more from you :wink: There’s a lot to do here :smiley:

BTW…you need to listed to My Fire Inside Podcast it’s really funny and awesome…best AFI podcast ever…and with 19 episodes already :wink:

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Welcome! It’s awesome that you discovered them recently and are looking to learn more. I agree that taking it an album at a time is best. That’s how I did it. Though I’m in my 30s and have been a fan since I was 15, so I started a bit earlier than you :slight_smile:

Have you been to a show yet? Manage to catch any of the Blood Tour?

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Welcome @YurfRendenmein ! New fan or old fan, you are welcome here! Thank you for sharing your story with us. Stories like yours are really the foundation of what we are today.

I’ve been a fan for over 17 years myself but it is never too late to come aboard. I’m anxious to see what you think of albums like Art of Drowning and Black Sails. :slight_smile:

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Through our bleeding, we are one.

Welcome @YurfRendenmein, the community here is awesome and I envy your ability to listen to some of AFI’s catalogue for the first time.

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Very true! That is exciting. :slight_smile:

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Hello and welcome @YurfRendenmein,what are some of your favorite songs so far regardless of album ? Anyways glad to have you here with us,our flame now burns a bit brighter!

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Hey! Welcome @YurfRendenmein ! That’s amazing that you got into them last year. I think that The Blood album was such a progression for them, and I was hoping it would bring in new fans. This is great.

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Thanks for the warm welcome everybody.

@STORMS I was thinking about giving my opinion of each album as I listened to it. Impressions of Answer that…coming soon!

I see a lot of comments on youtube and facebook from some fans talking about selling out etc. I suspect i’ll find a series of albums over which the band changes organically as you would expect rather than having 40 year old people with more money than they did when they were 20 singing in the same style about the same kind of problems.

Or maybe not? I guess that will be the fun of finding out and judging each album purely on the music. :slight_smile:

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The crap of them “selling out” was on fire in 2003 when they went to DreamWorks. Those people can suck it. That’s actually the sole reason they made the Despair Faction.

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Totally I remember that,AFI paid their dues multiple times over,it was a relief when the DF was born.When I get time I’ll search the Internet archive and find out when the DF was actually brought up,I’ve seen mentions of the naming contest,but I wonder who was behind the idea.I remember prior to STS I read in I think it was (guitar world) that the DF was 50-75,000 people strong,Im pretty sure it was 75k and that was prior!Two platinum albums later I’m sure the number would have been higher if it kept going and was regularly updated feel the band did their success themselves and then after DU till now something happened in the PR department,it’s like they (not the band)only rely on the die hards when im sure many fans would comeback with simple reminders and standard marketing.

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@Ksf145
When the DF was made about? Look no further!

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