Love Like Winter

AFI's 'Love Like Winter' is a haunting exploration of love's cold and consuming nature. The song's lyrics paint a vivid picture of a love that is both beautiful and chilling, much like the winter season. The opening lines, 'Warn your warmth to turn away / Here it's December, everyday,' set the tone for a relationship that is devoid of warmth and perpetually stuck in a state of emotional frost. The imagery of pressing lips to sculptures and being made of 'sugar and ice' further emphasizes the cold, almost lifeless nature of this love.

The recurring phrase 'It's in the blood' suggests that this love is deeply ingrained and perhaps unavoidable. The narrator speaks of meeting their love 'before I was born,' indicating a predestined connection that transcends time. This love is not just a fleeting emotion but something that is a fundamental part of their being. The act of tasting blood and the lover biting the narrator's lip to 'drink my war' implies a relationship that is both passionate and destructive, feeding off past traumas and conflicts.

The song also delves into themes of memory and longing. The line 'She exhales vanilla lace, I barely dreamt her yesterday' suggests a fleeting, almost dreamlike quality to the relationship. The mention of 'Por Siempre' (forever) written in lipstick on a mirror adds a layer of melancholy, as it hints at a love that is both eternal and out of reach. The repeated refrain of 'Love like winter' serves as a stark reminder of the cold, enduring nature of this love, encapsulating the song's central theme of a beautiful yet chilling emotional experience.