AFI - Silver Bleeds The Black Sun... (Album Review)
Wednesday, 08 October 2025
Written by Jack Press
Photo: Lexie Alley
With ‘Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…’, AFI have delivered their most focused statement in a decade. Their 12th album clocks in at just 33 minutes — their shortest LP since 1997’s hardcore charge ‘Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes' — and this discipline proves transformative. By cutting the fat that has occasionally weighed down their 2010s output, the Californian quartet have uncovered the urgency that made them essential.
The defining shift here is sonic. AFI have always threaded gothic rock and post-punk influences throughout their work, but ‘Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…’ makes them the foundation. Say what you will about vocalist Davey Havok’s evolving aesthetic, the music itself marks their boldest reinvention in years, fully committing to the shadowy sounds that previously lurked at the edges of their discography.
Opening track The Bird of Prey establishes the template: tribal drumming and ferociously strummed acoustic guitars give way to a jangly post-punk atmosphere as Havok channels Robert Smith’s melancholic grandeur.
Behind the Clock taps into Sisters of Mercy’s sinister grooves with its throbbing bassline and shimmering guitars, while Holy Visions delivers the album’s knockout moment: a gang-chanted earworm backed by nightclub synths that feels destined for live show singalongs.
Lyrically, the album finds Havok wrestling with time and its control on humanity through a literary and cinematic lens. Behind the Clock namechecks multiple members of the David Lynch universe and Ash Speck in a Green Eye is Charles Baudelaire addressing his muse Jeanne Duval. These aren’t affectations — they ground Havok's exploration of existential dread and societal collapse in historical precedent.
On Spear of Truth, he intones, “This world is sick and I’m unwell” over a whistling underlay, capturing modern malaise with all the theatrical pomp you expect from AFI. Not every track reaches the peaks of Holy Visions or the thrashing closer Nooneunderground, but there’s no filler, just muscle. By committing fully to their gothic impulses, AFI have rediscovered their bite.
AFI Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Thu October 09 2025 - WASHINGTON - Anthem (USA)
Fri October 10 2025 - BOSTON Massachusetts - Citizens House of Blues Boston (USA)
Sun October 12 2025 - WALLINGFORD Connecticut - Dome at Oakdale Theatre (USA)
Tue October 14 2025 - PHILADELPHIA Pennsylvania - Fillmore Philadelphia - Complex (USA)
Wed October 15 2025 - BROOKLYN New York - Brooklyn Paramount (USA)
Fri October 17 2025 - ATLANTA Georgia - Heaven Stage at The Masquerade - Complex (USA)
Sat October 18 2025 - NASHVILLE Tennessee - Marathon Music Works (USA)
Mon October 20 2025 - ASHEVILLE North Carolina - Orange Peel (USA)
Tue October 21 2025 - NORTH MYRTLE BEACH South Carolina - House Of Blues - Myrtle Beach (USA)
Thu October 23 2025 - ORLANDO Florida - Hard Rock Live Orlando (USA)
Fri October 24 2025 - FORT LAUDERDALE Florida - FTL War Memorial (USA)
Sat October 25 2025 - TAMPA Florida - Ritz Ybor (USA)
Tue October 28 2025 - DALLAS - South Side Ballroom (USA)
Wed October 29 2025 - AUSTIN Texas - ACL Live At The Moody Theater (USA)
Fri October 31 2025 - DENVER Colorado - Fillmore Auditorium (USA)
Sat November 01 2025 - SALT LAKE CITY Utah - Rockwell at Complex SLC - Complex (USA)
Tue November 04 2025 - OAKLAND California - Fox Theater - Oakland (USA)
Wed November 05 2025 - SAN DIEGO California - SOMA - Mainstage (USA)
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