Alternative Press teamed up with AFI for exclusive purple and white swirl vinyl of Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…, limited to 500 copies. Head to the AP Shop to grab yours.
Last month, AFI appeared on our digital cover to unpack the world of Silver Bleeds the Black Sun…, an album that draws from their Bay Area roots as well as post-punk heroes while nailing a singular mood. “Finding the dark and beautiful compelling, post-punk has thereby always been compelling, if we’re going to use genres — because it is in fact dark and beautiful,” Davey Havok told us, revealing that he was a fan of the Cure before discovering hardcore. “So the poetry and the connection and the beauty that’s involved in that, but [it] has long spoken to me since I was very young… I started going to punk shows in the early ’90s. But there’s an emotional connection in that attraction to crooked beauty.”
Read more: AFI reflect on creating their breakthrough hit “Girl’s Not Grey”
Both lead single “Behind the Clock” and today’s “Holy Visions” stress that connection, arriving with artful videos directed by Gilbert Trejo. The latter sees the band swallowed in an alluring pink and blue light, throbbing with the energy of their ’80s forebears. Speaking about the visual, Havok says, “Getting to work with Gilbert on two videos was a joy. ‘Holy Visions’ is the perfect visual sublimation of the song.”
Later this month, AFI will head out on their North American headliner with TR/ST — their first proper tour since 2021’s Bodies, though they did open shows for Green Day and Linkin Park earlier this year and play Sing the Sorrow in full for its 20th anniversary (the “first and last time ever”) in 2023. See their tour routing here and video for “Holy Visions” below.