this is afi's latest full length. it shows still more progression in afi's unique sound. davey describes this album as "dynamic". which is quite true. there's a lot of variety on this album, so you can listen to over and over again without it getting old or boring.

some new things you'll hear on this album are more songs with traditional singing. though, the havok moan still remains on many songs as well. additionally you'll hear more musical growth on the part of the other band members. notably jade, who's guitar playing has opened up tenfold. i also found hunter's bass work excellent, although ican't say that i've ever not enjoyed his work. admist all this change, one thing that remains completely unchanged is davey's, now trademarked, eloquently phrased lyrics.

there are 14 cd tracks and one "hidden" track entitled "battled". on the vinyl release you'll get the bonus track "dream of waking"

Lyrics and Tracklist:

Initiation
The Lost Souls
The Nephilim
Ever and a Day
The Sacrifice Theory
Of Greetings and Goodbyes
Smile
A Story at Three
The Days of the Phoenix
Catch a Hot One
Wester
6 to 8
The Despair Factor
Morningstar
Battled

Vinyl Only
Dream of Waking

 

Initiation

Instrumental

The Lost Souls
If you can't stand upon the water I will see you on the ocean floor. When you blink do you only find the misery between the lines? Then take my hand and walk with me. Come to me, your sanctuary, I'll gladly accept the gift that I've been granted. If you feel fine, then give it just a little time I'm sure you'll contract my disease.

Look what you've done to me now, you've made me perfect.

If you can't stand upon the earth then I will meet you on the other side. When you blink do you only find the misery weighs down your eyes? Then take my hand and sleep with me.

Take my hand I'll be everything to you. Take my hand I'll take everything from you. I will seep under your skin. I will. I will hold onto your heart. I will.

The Nephilim
Swing through sadness, tears of joy. Curse the sunlight. Arsenic for the girls and boys. Drink the madness, smoke so coy. Smile injection. Serum of a will destroyed.

The seasons change without me. I remain in shadows growing wings.

The spirit song still surrounds me, in refrain, in shadows growing wings.

Like an angel with two broken wings, reach the sky again. Like a devil, meant for better things, I will find my place on high.

Ever and a Day
Lie in comfort of sweet calamity with nothing left to lose. Like in the darkness, I'm slowly drowned to sleep nothing left to lose. Three tears I've saved for you. I'd retrace the steps that lead me here but nothing lives behind me. So I lie in this field bathed in the light that loves me, with nothing left to lose. Three tears I've saved for you.

Will you be my beloved? Will you help me to get through? Will you be my destruction? Will you help me to be through?

Sacrifice Theory
Hear one thousand screams. Hear one thousand voices. A solitary echo. Feel one thousand pains, but one is receiving a bloody invitation.

Do you want to feel the warmth? To taste the life flow?

Feel one thousand lost sinking into soft skin. Ingest rejuvenation. One to consume, one to renew. Demanded invitation.

I offer grace, I offer blood. I offer everything till my heart is crystal clear.

Do you want to feel the warmth? To taste the life? I want to taste the life to taste the life flow.

Of Greetings and Goodbyes
Now ending discreetly, just like a hidden sin, as I go under please tuck me in. Make me invisible. This hidden explosion calls for a wandering cast with no direction. Enter all monsters let us twist another fairy tale.

Go kill the lights, we'll glow till morning comes. I'll say goodnight and bow to everyone. Then we go under.

The beauties are sleeping as fruit just rots away. Today go hungry. Let it begin. Make me invincible. There was a weeping I carried down today, a sigh worth keeping. Deep within divinity let's star another secret show.

No need to worry it is just another monster. No need to fear here in the secret show. No need to worry I am just another monster. In you, I'll see me, in the secret show.

Smile
Overwhelmed with a deep repulsion for sights seen so commonly, now I have come to be the walking enmity. Assimilate into a culture of post morality, from what I've seen, I hate humanity.

Rot with repulsion. I'll write the world a brand new song.

Look upon your bleak creation, but is it truly me that's to be the human blasphemy?

I'll set the world on fire and, in burning light I'll write my first love song and I will feel warmth. Hide your eyes in heaven, in the lies. Believe. Relieve. I'll end the world tonight.

Overwhelmed with a deep repulsion for sights seen so commonly, now I have come to be a walking enmity, for humanity, the human blasphemy, I'll end the world tonight.

A Story at Three
Again and again they blend into one, my father the morning pushes through moonlight love. So what's sleep? Sleep. I'm tired, so tired, but it seems that there's someone here with me.

We are the wakeful, wry, watchful. We're awaiting. Deathless ones.

A story at three with the shrillest of cries. My mind fights with the sparkles in the corner of my eyes.

I hear the morning choir sing to me their elegy. So beautiful. They sing to me their elegy. Requiem.

The Days of the Phoenix

I remember when I was told of story of crushed velvet, candle wax, and dried up flowers. The figure on the bed all dressed up in roses, calling.beckoning to sleep offering a dream.

The words were as mystical as purring animals. The circle of rage the ghosts on the stage appeared. The time was so tangible I'll never let it go. Ghost stories handed down, reached secret tunnels below.

No one could see me. I fell into yesterday. Our dreams seemed not far away. I want to stay. I fell into fantasy.

The girl on the wall always waited for me and she was always smiling. The teenage death boys, the teenage death girls..and everyone was dancing. Nothing could touch us then no one could change us then, and everyone was dancing. Nothing could hurt us then, no one could see us then, and everyone was dancing. Everyone was dancing.

Catch a Hot One
Let's tap your heart so we can paint the walls and see if anybody likes the tone or the pain. The hungry eyes waiting for life flash, now they're gonna see it. Open your veins so we can make a pool and bathe and see if anyone complains of the stain. Let's strip you down so we can see you old scars.Now you're gonna feel it. Show me how to shine now.

Have you ever turned to dust? I saw an insect learn to fly; its form was scorned. Have you ever seen the kingdom of the flys? I saw it stay in sovereignty. Have you lost the sense of touch? Have you ever turned to dust?

Let's lift you up so we can see how fast you fall. We always thought that you could fly; now you'll crawl. The lack of loyalty you thought you once felt, now you're gonna feel it. Show me how to shine now.

Wester
I can feel you waiting for me as the sun retreats to the hills and I, beneath the blanket of a burning sky, wrap myself within. Embraced by dead leaves as the rain leaves trails of black down my face, I creep through the twilight to that hidden place beyond the lonely. I'll meet you...

Tonight in the whispers when no one's around. Nothing can stop us now. Tonight in the whispers where we won't be found.

I can feel you dreaming of me and the time when our steps are retraced and I creep through the twilight to that hidden place, beyond the lonely, I'll meet you.

Beneath a dream, lost in a dream tonight. Smile.

One world away. We were just one world away. Silent rapture let us stay, one world away...

6 to 8
Six figures enter; they've come to destroy the world. They've called together this storm almost every night. I awake in another place. A familiar voice with a stranger's face speaks more unheard words.

What new friends will the day bring? One for one thousand acquainted. What new home will the night bring? When it all comes down you just throw the bones.

On the way I saw five hours of sleep but your fire makes it all worth while. On the way I wrote words for you to keep.

On the way, I saw myself. Lost myself along the way.

The Despair Factor
Along the path where the stream is talking, I breathe the mist and continue walking. The wood it whispers in a language of it's own. As a sigh escaped my lips I feel the light caress of fingertips that steal away the breath and leave me on my own

Waiting by the stairs. Waiting, I despair.

My whole life is a dark room, one big dark room.

Do I hear the hollow sound, footsteps resounding on this frozen ground, or the familiar disappointment of the echoes of my own?

For redemption, for elation, for the time when I ascend for the ecstasy, for the tragedy for the point of my ascension

Somehow I ended up here in between, where there is always the comfort of knowing I'll never be seen when I fall. I wait for just one touch.and I fall.

Weightless, Endless, Faithless, I'll adore you. A single touch before I fade. Painless let me pass through.

Morningstar
I saw a star beneath the stairs glowing through the melting walls. Who will be the first to begin their fall? Or will we become one?

Am I the star beneath the stairs? Am I a ghost upon the stage? Am I your anything?

I saw a star beneath the stairs glowing bright before descent and in the morning there is nothing left but what's inside of me.

Am I the star beneath the stairs? Am I a ghost upon the stage? Am I your anything?

And I don't want to die tonight; will you believe in me? And I don't want to fall into the light. Will you wish upon... Will you walk upon me? I don't want to die tonight. Will you you believe in me tonight?

Am I the star beneath the stairs? Am I a ghost upon the stage? Am I your anything?

Battled

I can't think and I can't speak
My mind is not my own
Feeling like my will is weak
Can I find the strength to go on?

I'm battled
I'm fucking battled

Dream of Waking

Not yet...