Photo by Lexie Alley

SoCal hardcore skate punk trailblazers. Emo goth linchpins of the mainstream movement. Synth-punk experimentalists, proto-punks, post-rock hellions, harbingers of doom, and everything in between. AFI has spanned many evolutions in the dark of their 30-plus-years revolving around this tortured earth. With “Behind the Clock” — the first single off the East Bay band’s 12th studio album Silver Bleeds the Black Sun…, and first since becoming the latest in a red hot signing streak by Run for Cover Records alongside Pelican and Angel Du$t — they are exactly where they should be, right on time at this point in their creative career.

“It’s an exploration of life mirroring art versus art mirroring life,” frontman says of the listen. “In a grander sense, it’s about who is part of the art and who is made of the art.” That Lynchian vantage point is evident, with Davey Havok’s vocals spiriting the brooding lurch and deep bellows of ’70s gothic godfathers Andrew Eldritch and Peter Murphy as he invokes Inland Empire characters Freddy Madison, Betty Elms, Nikki Grace and Susan Blue. The post-punk and death rock architecture of that era is evident in its glittered hell as well, with Jade Puget ripping open black skies as bassist Hunter Bergan and drummer Adam Carson’s rhythm thunder rolls through its void. Still, you catch lightning flashes of AFI’s hardcore DNA breaking through. “He’s inside you, you’re inside me.” No matter the timeline, AFI remain transcendent against it.

Directed by: Gilbert Trejo

AFI’s Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… will be release October 3rd on Run for Cover Records.