REVIEW: AFI - Silver Bleeds the Black Sun...

For over three decades, AFI have been known as one of the bands who got big off of the early and mid 2000's emo boom. Hits like Miss Murder cemented their scene status, but the band's twelfth studio album Silver Bleeds the Black Sun... is a real evolution for the act.  Produced by guitarist JADE PUGET, Silver Bleeds the Black Sun... showcases the band's eclectic blend of death rock and post-punk, with heavy inspiration from bands like ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN, BAUHAUS and THE SISTERS OF MERCY. With lead vocalist DAVEY HAVOK’s emotionally charged, theatrical vocals, accompanied by aggressive and atmospheric guitar riffs and drum beats, the album is clearly AFI, but unlike anything they’ve done before. 

The Bird of Prey starts the album off with a heady rush of dreamy, ethereal lyrics, with the instrumental backdrop fit for the opening of a cult 80’s film, setting the stage for the rest of the album to come, throwing us head first into a dystopian landscape. Lead single Behind the Clock throws multiple references to classic David Lynch characters Freddy Madison, Betty Elms, Nikki Grace, and Susan Blue; DAVEY HAVOK’s brooding and crooning vocals telling stories with the poetic darkness often expected and always delivered by the band.

Holy Visions is a song fit for The Lost Boys soundtrack, with its religious connotations and talk of “Holy visions while in my left hand, holding cheap beads, I’m going up and down the rosary” and “Underground there is a girl, a glowing girl, burning brightly, calling me home”. Holy Visions delivers a more up-tempo synth and drum based backing than the preceding songs, but with HAVOK’s almost chant-like vocals, it is by no means misplaced on the album. With a gentler start, of softer drums and guitar riffs, Blasphemy and Excess continues the holy theme with dystopian undertones, with vocals like “Play on the floor. Sleep on big screens. Isn’t it nice?” dancing into the midway point of the album.

“This world is sick and I’m unwell” are words too many of us can probably relate to in the current climate, and DAVEY HAVOK’s delivery of the lyrics to Spear of Truth feel like a cathartic purge, whilst living and breathing in a dystopian hellscape. Starting with synth guitars reminiscent of 80’s new wave classics, in Ash Speck in a Green Eye presents HAVOK spending his time brooding over a toxic relationship with his own Jeanne Duval, the key muse and longtime, tumultuous partner of poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire. Voidward, I Bend Back is another perfect example of the bands heavy 80’s goth and post punk influences, with HAVOK serenading the listener with tales of dreamy nightmares and poetic landscapes.

Telling more tales of love, Marguerite has the chanting vocalist HAVOK once again lamenting about a woman tormenting his every waking hour with vampiric undertones “Rewrite a life. And I never meant to make you my Marguerite, Marguerite of mine”. A World Unmade presents more dystopic imagery through crooning words, with strong drum beats and guitars creating an almost lullaby-like song; with HAVOK stating he is “the heliocentric flaw”.  Finally, Nooneunderground smashes through the speakers and ends the album with a crash; though one of the shorter tracks on the album, the lyrics are a trip into a story reminding us we are actually all alone, bookending Silver Bleeds the Black Sun... as another perfect example of the multifaceted and constantly in-flux band that AFI are. 

Described by DAVEY HAVOK as “a struggle to reconcile existence in a godless dystopia that lacks sanctuary, mystique, reason, and a chance of survival”, Silver Bleeds the Black Sun... is a deeply atmospheric album which die hard, fair-weather and new fans alike will rejoice in blessing their ears with.

Score: 9/10

Silver Bleeds The Black Sun... will be released on October 3rd 2025.

Words: Lou Viner-Flood

Photos: AFI