It might seem a redundant thing to say, but 12 albums into their career, AFI - the gothiest of all goth-punk bands - have gone pure goth.
Having spent the last decade being influenced by alternative sounds of the 80s, leaning further into post-punk on 2021’s Bodies and new wave on their 2017's The Blood Album, Silver Bleeds the Black Sun... is where they fully dive into the roots of early gothic rock.
Opener The Bird of Prey sets the tone beautifully, calling back to that period where goth bands of the 80s decided to try and be Led Zeppelin; all big, airy drums mixed with the chime of 12-string acoustic guitars and Davey Havok’s dramatic vocals. It’s a trick they pull a couple of times, Blasphemy and Excess being the finest example. Where Bodies seemed to be AFI trying to write their own Blue Monday, these songs feel like an attempt to make a modern version of The Mission’s Tower of Strength or The Cult’s Revolution.
Much like AFI's would-be protégés Creeper have done on their excellent Sanguivore albums, Silver Bleeds the Black Sun... delights in cranking up the pure theatre and excess of goth's most overblown artists; Behind the Clock sees Havok evoke the vampiric, bug-eyed intensity of Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy over a raw rock riff, while Holy Visions is as bombastic as The Sisters of Mercy during their chart-bothering peak.
The band haven’t entirely given up on the post-punk of their previous few records. Ash Speck in a Green Eye is full of synth lines and dubby bass, Marguerite would have fitted perfectly alongside the more anthemic material of The Blood Album and Voidward, I Bend Back and A World Unmade skilfully blend AFI's recent style with this new, ever-blacker direction. Those latter two tracks mix icy synths and wiry guitar lines like prime Cure during their Pornography or Disintegration days.
There’s even a nod back to AFI's Art of Drowning-era punk rock roots on boisterous closer Nooneunderground, its straight-ahead thrashing potentially the biggest shock of the entire album.
On Silver Bleeds the Black Sun..., AFI's career-long habit of making bold and distinct choices with each record continues. This time around, however, it’s possibly resulted in their finest album in over a decade. Even by AFI’s standards, this is none more goth.
