AFI - Very Proud of Ya

This album is A.F.I.'s 1st release on Nitro Records and is packed full of melodic hardcore. 20 tracks. Album Description

 One Long Song...
This is like one long song...one very annoying long song (that sounds like the Misfits). It's good to see a band mature and learn to sing! December 20, 2007

 Very Proud Of Ya
AFI-Very Proud Of Ya *****

It's kind of like really great sex. Very fast and powerful and ends just like it began, on top, and in the end your left with a feeling of satisfaction, well that's Very Proud Of Ya by AFI. Very Proud Of Ya is the bands first album on Nitro records as well as one of the best. Havocs fantastic vocals mixed with the Misfit influenced guitar and rhythm section makes for one mean punk album. Now keep in mind this isn't your little sisters AFI, this is good straight up hardcore-old fashioned punk rock at its most pure and best.

`He Who Laughs Last' `File 13' `Soap Box Derby' `Theory Of Revolution' and `Consult My Lover' are all excellent examples of what AFI started out as, a hardcore punk band. On Very Proud Of Ya this are the five songs that to most stand out the most. `Consult My Lover' might as well be changed to Very Proud Of You and made the title track. The chorus on this track alone is worth the perches of the album, easily Davy Havocs best vocal performance on the album by far.

Songs like `Crop Tub' `Cult Status' `Take The Test' and `Fishbowl' while they aren't as good as the before mentioned songs and while they don't stand out as much they are still very good very solid songs, its these songs that hold the album together in between the classics.

To review Very Proud Of Ya by AFI and not mention `Perfect Fit' would just simply put not do the album justice. It is to AFI what `Devilock' was to the Misfits. It's that rare classic that was mixed in with the shuffle and over looked by many but is truly on of the very best things the band has ever recorded. The guitar alone is some of the best they ever played and Havocs lyrics and vocal delivery is among his career best.

It's a shame AFI refuses to play their older music such as the material on this album and really anything before Sing The Sorrow, as if the music is inferior to the new when in reality it's by far superior and is what made the band what they are today. So while AFI may have forgotten their roots you don't have too so this is highly recommended to anyone who is reading this. July 10, 2006

 The Good Old Days
If you started listening to AFI when this cd was released then you know they changed the sound big time. For me that is when I said "I 'll just stick to the first two cds". I'm really not in to thier whole new "hardcore" style they have now. I just saw the video on MTV for the latest single and boy what a laugh. I guess it happens to a lot of bands. But it sucks when they change from a band you like to hear, to band that hurts your ears. I still remember seeing them open up for Guttermouth in 1996 and then hearing this cd played in the record store, buying it like a week after it came out and having many bedroom concerts..hahaha Those were The Good Old Days. June 27, 2006

 Good, if a bit generic
Much like "Answer That and Stay Fashionable" (which was released before "Very Proud of Ya" on a different label before being rereleased by Nitro after the latter was released) this is AFI in their punk phase, before the harder and darker influences began to take over. This release is slightly darker than their previous release in that their are no real novelty songs and most of its tunes tend to have a "dark" focus, but its still basically three quickly played chords backing up Davey's whiney voice. I group this one with their first record because its basically the same sound, if a little more developed.

Despite the development I don't like this one as much as ATaSF because the latter can be listened to straight through while this one has some songs that I don't really like that much ("Take the Test" and "Crop Tub" for example) though it does have the BEST songs out of the two releases. Songs like the catchy "This Secret Ninja", the amazing "Perfect Fit", and the dark "Advances in Modern Technology" outshine the best on Answer That's songs in my opinion. Unfortunatey they all come towards the start of the record and most of the other ones are not that good or only okay. The average song on here is still good punk rock and its worth your time if you enjoy that kind of thing. Its nothing earth shattering but its a solid record and it beats the hell out of Sing the Sorrow. May 30, 2006

 AFI's SECOND classic
This was AFI's second album, and their first nitro album. This is one of my favorite of their releases. I think that alot of people misinterperate this album. Number 1: It's not punk!!! AFI never claimed to be punk!! So quite calling it punk. I'm dissapointed in these reviews. I'm the only person who loves both Sing the Sorrow and Very Proud of Ya'!! This album was much better than the next two. The chord progressions were much more catchy and creative. Geoff is a great bassist. Him and Davey did most of the song-writing in the early years. This album had better chorus melodies than the next album, too. I personally think the lyrics on this album were actually much more straight-forward, and serious on this album. It just comes off funny because most "hardcore kids" don't see things the same way as Davey. He must have been pretty serious when he wrote Cruise Control! For once! Someone who's not a self-endulgent pig! Anyway, my favorite songs are Two of a Kind (darker than the Answer That version), Cult Status, Consult my Lover, Take the Test, Modern Epic, and Advances in Modern Technology. Get this album, along with every other AFI release! May 8, 2006

More reviews at Amazon.com ...