AFI formed in 1991 while the members were attending high school in Ukiah, California. At the time, the band had no drummer. Mark suggested his friend Adam Carson be in the band. Furthermore, they didn't know how to play any instruments, but they knew that Davey was able to sing, and Adam had a drumkit. So Mark learned guitar and Vic learned bass (he was later replaced by future Tiger Army bassist Geoff Kresge). AFI made their first foray in recording with the EP Dork (1993) with the now defuct Loose Change, which included future AFI guitarist Jade Puget.

AFI disbanded when its members attended different colleges, including the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Songwriter and bassist Geoff Kresge moved to New York where he played with the band Blanks 77. After reuniting to perform a live show, the other members decided to drop out of college to play in the band full-time. Between 1993 and 1995 they released several vinyl EPs (Behind the Times; Eddie's Picnic All Wet; Fly in the Ointment; This is Berkeley, Not West Bay; AFI/Heckle) independently. They released their debut full-length album Answer That and Stay Fashionable in 1995 with Wingnut Records; which was re-released in 1997 by Nitro Records. Their second album, Very Proud of Ya, was released in 1996 on the Nitro label. After several tours in support of the album, bassist Geoff Kresge decided to leave the group. Bassist Hunter Burgan (formerly of The Force) filled in for Kresge for the remaining Very Proud of Ya tours. He went on to help AFI record Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes and was invited to become the new bassist. Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes introduced AFI fans to a much more aggressive sound that included much more shouting as opposed to singing. Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes is generally considered the first step in the band's progression away from their original sound.

After recording the A Fire Inside EP for Adeline Records in 1998, guitarist Mark Stopholese left the band and was replaced by his close friend Jade Puget. Following the new approach they had taken on the A Fire Inside EP, the band recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (Nitro 1999), a musical turning point in the band's career. On this album, their original hardcore roots were still the base of their sound, but more gothic influences were apparent. In 1999, they recorded the All Hallows EP, which spawned the single "Totalimmortal". "Totalimmortal" was later covered by The Offspring for the soundtrack of Me, Myself and Irene. It got a fair amount of radio play and helped expose AFI to larger audiences. The lead singer of The Offspring, Dexter Holland, at the time owned Nitro Records, the label to which AFI was signed, and was featured as a backing vocalist on a number of Black Sails in the Sunset tracks. In 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174 [1]. The Days of the Phoenix was released as a single and video in order to promote the album. The Days of the Phoenix, like Totalimmortal, had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band both TV and radio airplay.

In 2002, AFI left Nitro Records on the recommendation of label owner Dexter Holland. Their next album, Sing the Sorrow, was released on the much larger DreamWorks label on March 11, 2003. The songs Girl's Not Grey, The Leaving Song Pt. 2 and Silver and Cold had some Billboard chart sucess and exposed the band to even larger audiences. They were nominated in the MTV Video Music Awards 2003 in the MTV2 award category for the video Girl's Not Grey, which came to be the first VMA they won. On October 7, 2005, AFI went on KROQ for an interview on the radio. They aired an unreleased song from the Sing the Sorrow sessions, entitled Rabbits are Roadkill on Route 37. This can somewhat explain the picture of a rabbit on the second to last page of the Sing the Sorrow lyric booklet. Rabbits are Roadkill on Route 37 would later be released as a UK & Australian bonus track for the group's seventh album Decemberunderground.

AFI's seventh album, Decemberunderground, was released on May 29, 2006 in the UK and June 6, 2006 (06/06/06) in the U.S. Reviewers have noted an even greater progression in sound for AFI in this album, featuring many more electronic, pop, and New Wave[2] elements. The Album's first single Miss Murder reached #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Charts. [3]The release reflects the continually changing and growing fan base of the band, and the album debuted as #1 on the Billboard charts.[4] The album has also been certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of over 500,000 copies of the album. In August of 2006, AFI's video for Miss Murder won Best Rock Video at the MTV Video Music Awards.

--Wikipedia