The beginning of the first song, "Initiation," reminds me of… what was that Split Enz song from way back when?

You know that only hit they really had before they turned into Crowded House.

Well anyway ten seconds later and you can lay the comparison to rest… and lay to waste any thoughts of beat pop and will you look at that… new wave itself getting swallowed up in "The Art of Drowning!"

AFI's new one could easily be known as "The Art of Shredding," if they wanted it to be… how about "The Art of Screaming Bloody Murder?"

They do have their sullen moments I might add as the verse to "The Lost Souls" magnifies this shallow pool they wade into ever so briefly before they're off the deep end again and often!

"The Art of Drowning" follows last year's impeccably timed Halloween EP which featured four of the best tunes I've ever heard them do-and this also includes the cover of The Misfits classic and here, the ghastly and ghoulish imagery seems to follow them like the black cloud they created for themselves with the "All Hallows…" thing.

The fact is AFI's gotten better and better since their old albums-not a sign of maturity inasmuch as they've just improved on their content and the songs themselves… call it "progression" if that's what it means, but six albums in, they've topped themselves just about every time.

This Hardcore/Punk/Metal hybrid-imagine for a minute what the first L.A. Guns album might sound like on speed-more evident here than what I remember from before, fuses a web of intriguing guitar riffs, with sudden twists and turns of incalculable depth and structure-see "The Nephilim," easily one of the biggest biblical-belters of all time, and "Ever and a Day" which while going slightly against this grain I just stepped through a moment ago, they invoke the ballad of the living dead… actually better known as "Ever and a Day," which in its Offspring like delivery, rages long into the night, a beckoning chorus of souls screaming to free themselves from a deep, dark oblivion.

Now The Misfits-this violent reaction that came through in most deadly fashion last year resurfaces again-an ugly headed ghoul-like creation conjured by the blistering pace of the angry guitar wail and unrepentant use of choral chanting.

Going further into this frozen chamber of horror, the biggest attribute I can raise evidently and assuredly as to why this album is better than their others is every song possesses its own identity and has an immediately memorable characteristic to it-"The Days of the Phoenix…" if there's only one song to base your own judgment on, it'll be this one!

There's nothing worse than throwing on your favorite band or record or whatever and hearing this awesome first track and the rest of the album falls flat… or worse, sounds exactly like the first song-no variation, no life, no future!

The new dawn is upon us and I can see now, it is "The Fine Art of Drowning…" a frightful revolution that'll see the best of the rest get up and dance right on their own graves!

Released by Nitro Records: http://www.nitrorecords.com/home.html

Review by Vinnie Apicella