AFI announce their new album Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… due October 3rd via Run For Cover Records/Civilians. Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… marks the twelfth album from AFI and will include the lead single “Behind the Clock,” which ushers in the bold new era for the iconic band. Pre-order/save the album here.
Alongside the new single, AFI share a music video directed by Gilbert Trejo. Speaking about the “Behind the Clock” video, director Trejo offers, “We wanted the video to feel like you’re seeing something you shouldn’t. In effect you are, because that’s how Davey writes lyrics. He’s expressing himself so openly, that you’re let behind this curtain. It’s a world that most artists don’t cut to, marrow deep.”
Sharing the experience working with Trejo, vocalist Davey Havok shares, “Gilbert’s video has sublimated the essence of ‘Behind the Clock.’ His vision and expertise is inspiring. Working with him was a privilege and utter joy. He is an artist of the purest form.”
For more than three decades, AFI has been in a nearly constant state of reinvention. The band have made it a point to evolve with every album – sometimes dramatically so – never allowing themselves to become too comfortable in one genre or rest on any of their impressive career laurels. It’s an approach that has grown their audience but also challenged it with a sonic identity that can shift in wild, unexpected directions. Now with Silver Bleeds the Black Sun…, AFI are once again at the start of an exciting new chapter, only this time they’ve even managed to surprise themselves.
The goal of Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… was to make an album with a singular mood, something dreamy and ethereal, and the band members found themselves diving headfirst into influences that had always been deeply embedded in AFI’s musical core, but now were being brought to the forefront. The result is an album that feels out of time, at once familiar and fresh, drawing on classic sounds and reinterpreting them through a modern lens. Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… is dark and otherworldly, but also grandiose and stately, biting and beautiful in equal measure—in other words, it’s very AFI, yet not quite like any version of the band you’ve ever heard before.
It’s this combination of endless creative daring, deftly wielded influences, and above all else, an unshakeable sense of self that’s allowed AFI to stay relevant for more than 30 years, often leading the way through emerging musical moments. From their scrappy roots as a high school hardcore band in the early ‘90s (Answer That and Stay Fashionable, Very Proud of Ya and Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes), to their dark melodic punk reinvention at the turn of the century (Black Sails in the Sunset and The Art of Drowning), to their crossover into mainstream stardom in the early 2000s (Sing the Sorrow and Decemberunderground) and their years as shapeshifting alternative rock journeymen (Crash Love, Burials, The Blood Album, and Bodies), the band has survived and thrived by staunchly being themselves—no matter what that is.
“Behind the Clock” is available everywhere now. Pre-order/save Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… and stay tuned for more from AFI coming soon.
