AFI - Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… (October 3, 2025) • Page 17

Goddamn, this is good.

 

Listening to Crash Love for the first time and man. It is AFI at their peak

 

this is the correct take.

 

Absolutely not

 

Heavy "I need to put a stop to this" vibes from Steve.

 

Crash Love has some of my favorite songs but also a few (when they lean too much on stadium rock or glam rock) that are eh

 

Its an injustice

 

Too soon to know how I feel about this as a whole, but the standouts are so good. Crazy to me that this is what they sound like now.

 

Ok... Just finished my first listen through. Maybe some hot takes here...

"Holy Visions", "Ash Speck", "Voidward", "Marguerite", and "Nooneunderground" are the only ones I'll come back to. But a lot of this just feels a little too paint-by-numbers 80s goth for me. For fans who aren't already well versed in that style/era, they'll probably think this is really awesome. But to me, this kinda feels more like AFI doing an impression of their influences, if that makes sense, and I dunno how I feel about that.

I've felt this way about them since they did that "Just Like Heaven" cover at the Cure tribute show. They really just played the song almost note for note as the original (except the ending), and I just wished they'd made it their own, like how Blink did at the same show with "A Letter to Elise."

"Nooneunderground" stands out. If the whole album had been like that song, mixed with "Holy Visions", I would have been a lot more into it all as a whole, I think.

Anyway, it's not a bad album by any means, it just isn't making me think, "Wow this is an incredible AFI album!"

 

Those are the exact songs I was referring to, haha.

 

I’m well-versed in that style and I think this is awesome.

 

Ah, but not "really awesome."

 

If we're doing that ... you said half the album were standouts (and didn't include "Behind the Clock"!).

 

Haha yeah, I wasn't too into that one. And it's the one I've heard the most.

 

I ran the discography and I can safely say that this band is good and always has been. I liked the albums I used to hate a lot more this time around, so I'm either less discerning or have broader taste nowadays. We may never know which it is. Very excited to hear the new one tomorrow, or maybe tonight when I get home from the Laura Stevenson show.

 

Also, Chicago folks, go get an AFI cookie from Pie Pie tomorrow:

 

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/afi/2025/the-fillmore-detroit-detroit-mi-7345a641.html

Amazing set. Band sounds incredible.

 

This is spooky and gorgeous, and everything in-between.

A worthy addition to their already stellar discography.

 

Really cool to see they're changing up the setlist, super excited to see what they pull out tomorrow

 

I'm on my 5th listen. I think I can pretty firmly say I like this a lot.

 

I'll need more time with this, but so far Voidward is far and away my favorite. Some of the slower songs didn't really sink in.

 

I'll listen to the album tomorrow but I actually just wrapped up my full discography run and I've really been sleeping on some songs on their last couple, especially Blood which has a lot more songs I liked than I remembered. I really think these guys are very consistent and don't have a "bad" album

Obligatory ranking

Sing the Sorrow (in my top 5 albums of all time)
Decemberunderground
Black Sails in the Sunset
The Art of Drowning
Burials
Crash Love
Bodies
Blood
Three-way tie between the first three (Answer That, Very Proud, Shut Your Mouth)

 

I’m almost done listening to the album (holy shit, they finally made the album you could hear little bits of throughout everything they’ve done since Jade joined).

But I can’t stop laughing at Davey not liking being the Halloween band with All Hallows EP and this album being released in October. This is gonna be people’s spooky album this year just based off the vibes.

 

This is my favorite thing they’ve done since Crash Love.

 

This rules…love the Bauhaus influence all over this.