"CD Review: Sing The Sorrow"" (***)"

AFI is an acronym for "A Fire Inside." As the name implies, Southern California's AFI is driving, emotional and motivating. Their latest effort, "Sing The Sorrow," is a 56-minute thrill ride through dark rock 'n' roll that does a little bit of everything.

The album begins with the dramatic "Miseria Cantere - The Beginning." Keyboards, sound effects and strings lay down the ground floor for a riveting drum beat that pounds away into a dark war-like rallying cry of "Love your hate/Your faith lost/You are now one of us."

These dark sentiments are a prevailing theme of the record, which, at points, call to mind bands as varied as Bad Religion, "End Transmission"-era Snapcase and even a few whispers of Tool. The second track, "The Leaving Song Pt. II," screams Boy Sets Fire, but as he does throughout the album, vocalist Davey Havok (do people even have that kind of last name?) takes the track and brands it AFI.

Havok's punk-style voice lends itself nicely to the anathematic melodies the songs call for. A screaming style that does not quite reside in the "turn that down" aisle of the local music store is a great asset for Havok, whose screams are not generally guttural and are certainly intelligible enough to keep most of the songs radio-friendly.

"Paper Airplanes (makeshift wings)" carefully straddles the line between late 1990s punk and the new wave of emo exemplified on the last efforts from the Movielife and Further Seems Forever.

What guitarist Jade Puget does for the band is create a punk-predictable, but more anathematic and building, chord structure to work with. The first single, "Girl's Not Grey," calls to mind a lovechild of Bad Religion and Strung Out, racing through the track with treble exploding fury and a gang vocal chorus while still maintaining the flow the radio demands.

There is no doubt that "Sing The Sorrow" does enough to earn measures of respectability with both the punk and emo-core crowds. The question is if it does enough to garner significant mainstream radio play, which AFI seems more intent on than ever. If the answer is no, the band has still done enough to appease its devoted fan base. If the answer is yes, the radio may become a better place because of it.