I remeber the R.O.C.K. HQ meeting when these kids came in talking about their new band "Area Fifty-One" they seemed like cool kids. I never got a chance for a long time to see AFO, but they where huge in Ashtabula. One thing I never understood about small town scenes is that they tend to become really cliquey. I know that plenty of punk and hardcore scenes become cliquey and there's plenty of hating going around, but I always felt that in a small rural town like Ashtabula that it would benefit all of the bands to stick together. I'm sorry that I went off on a tangent, and I'm not saying that AFO were haters or anything. I know that it just seemed that fans of one of the bands in the scene sometimes didn't want to be fans of any of the other bands in the scene. AFO early stuff and the songs on "From Now On" have a FAT Wreck Chords influenced sound. The songs tend to deal with teen angst issues like girls, alienation, issues with local law enforcement.
By the time of AFO's second full length "Seven Years" the band showed a more, shall I say mature sound? I mean it's still has the flavour of FAT wreck chords inspired sound, but BAM! They took it up a notch! (sorry Emeril) and added elements of metalcore. The songs on "Seven Years" are more political and personal with more of the punk rock alienation but addressing issues such as the War in Iraq and Terrorism Hysteria addressed in "Alert Orange", childhood consumer culture dillusionment "Batteries Not Included" and the death of our mutual friend Thom Wright "Fill His Shoes" I'll up both of these individually so that the sound of the late 90's early 2000's Ashtabula and Cleveland scenes can be discussed with the re-release to the world of AFO's two albums.
Bleed - Bully Complex LP
