AFI: Silver Bleeds The Black Sun… [Album Review]

AFI
Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…
Run For Cover Records [2025]

“AFI lean into the shadows and come out sounding more alive than ever.”

Album Overview: AFI rose out of California’s East Bay punk scene in the early ’90s, starting as a scrappy hardcore outfit cutting their teeth at 924 Gilman Street. Their catalog has always been a moving target: the raw urgency of Answer That and Stay Fashionable and Very Proud of Ya, the dark punk drama of Black Sails in the Sunset and The Art of Drowning, the big-league leap with Sing the Sorrow and Decemberunderground. Later came the sleek experiments of Crash Love, Burials, The Blood Album, and Bodies. That constant shape-shifting has kept AFI unpredictable for more than three decades.

With Silver Bleeds the Black Sun…, their twelfth record, they ditch old formulas and chase a different muse—one rooted in late ’70s and early ’80s post-punk, goth, and death rock. Produced and engineered by guitarist Jade Puget, the album cloaks itself in atmosphere, bridging AFI’s history with a moodier, cinematic push forward.

Musical Style: This album wears its goth influence proudly. Acoustic strums drift through walls of synth, basslines throb with a Joy Division-like heaviness, and shimmering guitars cut through the fog. The rhythm section builds a hypnotic pulse, while Puget sprinkles sharp melodic edges into the gloom. Davey Havok shifts between whispered baritones, aching croons, and piercing highs, turning each song into a performance as much as a recording.

Evolution of Sound: AFI have reinvented themselves plenty, but Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… feels like a culmination. The hardcore roots are long gone, the arena-ready hooks of the 2000s dialed back. Instead, they lean fully into the gothic influences that have always lurked in their DNA—Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sisters of Mercy—but filter them through AFI’s own dramatic lens. It’s proof that, even after 30+ years, this band can still catch you off guard—and sound fully at home doing it.

Artists with Similar Fire: If you’re into Echo & the Bunnymen’s widescreen moods, Peter Hook’s bass-first drive in Joy Division and early New Order, or The Cure’s Faith-era shadowplay, this album will land immediately. Add in flashes of Killing Joke’s fire, Siouxsie’s icy poise, Bauhaus’ theatrical gloom, and even the deep-cut weight of Type O Negative, and you’ll see the territory AFI is claiming.

Pivotal Tracks: “The Bird of Prey” opens with acoustic guitar tangled in synths and cavernous drums, announcing the new direction. “Blasphemy & Excess” and “A World Unmade” showcase Havok’s range—from low croons to glass-shattering highs. “Voidward, I Bend Back” and “Marguerite” are carried by pulsing basslines straight out of goth’s golden years. “Behind the Clock” hits hard with distorted low end and razor-edged guitars, while “Holy Visions” is a standout, mixing biting commentary with a dark-wave riff that sticks in your brain. The closer, “Nooneunderground,” smashes past and present together in a chaotic, but laser-focused finale.

Lyrical Strength: Havok is still swinging at big targets: faith, morality, identity, disillusionment. His words blur allegory with personal confession, using religious and dystopian imagery to question existence without giving away all the answers. On “Blasphemy & Excess,” he spits out “Here is blasphemy, no fucking regrets” with a venom that’s both defiant and theatrical. “Holy Visions” twists the idea of good and evil with sly irony, while “Behind the Clock” asks what role art plays in how we see ourselves. The lyrics don’t just decorate the songs—they deepen the album’s aura of mystery and weight.

Final Groove: Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… isn’t AFI trying to relive past glories—it’s them choosing a new haunted mansion to live in. It’s moody, melodic, and surprisingly immersive, the kind of record that rewards late-night headphones and a dark room. The band’s restless spirit has found a natural home in gothic soundscapes, and the result feels both like a new beginning and a long-awaited arrival. AFI’s story isn’t finished, and if this album is any sign, their current chapter might be the most intriguing yet.

AFI REVIEW HISTORY
Burials (2014)

AFI LINKS
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