AFI - Shut Your Mouth & Open Your Eyes

'Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes' is A.F.I's 1997 album on Nitro Records. This release has 14 tracks, including 'Keeping Out Of Direct Sunlight', 'Three Reasons' and 'A Single Second' Album Description

horror-core at its finest

this album is in my point of view the best early afi album. they perfectly capture the harcore punk sound with a hint of horror punk. My favorite track "coin return" has a psychobilly sounding riff thats blends perfectly with daveys screaming vocals. other great tracks are "three seasons", "let it be broke"(the most agressive afi song ever) and the intro awesome. this album is what i call horror-core, too bad such a good band turned so emo and horrible now. whoooooa September 20, 2007

Brutal!

This album, AFI's 3rd, marked a huge change in the band's direction. Instead of fun skateboard punk, which they perfected in their 2nd album ANSWER THAT AND STAY FASHIONABLE, AFI switched gears and made their music much harder and more serious. SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND OPEN YOUR EYES rages, roars and rocks like no other AFI album -- Davey Havok screams half the lyrics, giving the songs more impact, and the music is simply brutal. The songs lack the soft, melodramatic goth parts common in the band's subsequent albums, making the hardcore music in SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND OPEN YOUR EYES even more relentless. The subsequent AFI albums have more breadth and are more radio-friendly, but none can match SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND OPEN YOUR EYES for its visceral punch. One of the great punk albums. June 8, 2007

Decent for it's genre

I'm not too familiar with AFI's earlier stuff, the pre-Black Sails stuff. I liked Sing The Sorrow, Art of Drowning, and a few tunes off Decemberunderground. I realize they're fallen into a repetitive, radio-friendly, generic songs trap, but they have a way with melody that made many of their recent tunes awesome, despite being somewhat formulaic. My first impression, as the first track kicked in was this shares the sense of melody and songwriting proficiency with their recent work, but has an extra bit of fire fueling it, and is left a bit unpolished. With the first few tracks you can tell not all of them are going to sound the same, which is great, especially in this genre. It's worth listening to if you like any of AFI's other stuff, but it wont blow anyone's mind. November 12, 2006

Afi's Harshest and Least Polished Work; Rage

Let me let you in on a little secret; all AFI is good. That's right ALL. Another secret; AFI is my favorite band of all time. Why? I'll show you.

'We are the Ones with the radiating eyes. We are the Ones who have a fire inside. We are the Ones only we can recognize. We've been rejected...'

...and that's the opening for this album, which is AFI's third. It's their harshest, angriest, meanest effort to date, and I don't think they will ever go back to this.

The sound? Fast and aggressive. The lyrics? Fast and pissed off! At one point, Davey's voice audibly cracks with the sheer rage-driven emotion that can't be found on any other AFI. Black_Sails_In_The_Sunset comes close, but it's better in other ways.

'Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Have you ever felt? Ever felt this way? Tainted with rage that you can't drain away or it will cost you your life.'...

...and that's the essesnce of this album. Davey Havok's lyrics are always poetic, unlike any other punk rock band anywhere, but here they trade in some of the band's later elloquence for sheer rage, and the result is an excellent, if slightly unpolished, representation of what the band has to offer.

So, if you like hardcore punk-rock, this is your AFI album.

And as for you who say AFI is not hardcore enough for you, go listen to harder music. If Slayer's Reign_In_Blood don't do it for you, try Converge's You_Fail_Me, or some Pig_Destroyer. But don't down a good band because they're not your kind of music.

For people who can appreciate AFI, and not just hardcore music, see also AFI-Black_Sails_In_The_Sunset, and AFI-The_Art_Of_Drowning. You won't be dissapointed.

PS For people new to AFI, I recommend starting at the middle with The_Art_Of_Drowning. October 23, 2006

Loud, fast, agressive, and pissed off!

My God, I love this CD. I love AFI's punk stuff in general, but this has to be my favorite album by them. It's loud, fast, agressive, and pissed off! Everything a punk rock album should be. The lyrics are also very well written, and they're almost poetic. Not quite. AFI really started getting poetic with 'Black Sails in the Sunset', which is this band's second best. Anyway, the best songs on here would definately be 'Today's Lesson', 'The Devil Loves You', 'pH Low', 'Lower Your Head And Take It In The Body', 'Three Second Notice', and 'Third Season'. Definately reccomended to ALL punk rock fans. New scene-emo AFI fans, you probably won't like this at all. Haha. July 15, 2006

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