For more than three decades, AFI has been a band in a constant state of reinvention. No album they’ve released has sounded much like the one before it, sometimes dramatically so. The band has never gotten too comfortable in one genre or allowed themselves to coast on any successes. It’s an approach that has regularly challenged their audience, as their sonic identity has shifted in wild, unexpected directions every few years. But on their twelfth album, Silver Bleeds the Black Sun..., the members of AFI managed to surprise even themselves.

“I realize this is something we’ve said about our records for years, but this record is starkly different from what we’ve done in the past,” says frontman Davey Havok. The band’s entire creative approach changed on Silver Bleeds the Black Sun. Instead of immediately throwing themselves into the writing process and letting their intuitive musical shorthand guide the process, they sat down beforehand and had a conversation about how they could break new ground. “In our 33 years together, we’ve covered so much, musically, that I found myself daunted at the prospect of doing something different, and questioning what that would be,” Havok says.

The band’s goal was to create a record with a singular mood, something dreamy and ethereal. “We started with something that sounded like Echo and the Bunnymen,” explains guitarist Jade Puget, who guided the album’s production. “But eventually we ended up with this melange of death rock and post-punk. All this stuff from the late 70s and early 80s that we grew up on, like Sisters of Mercy, and Bauhaus, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.” The band members found themselves leaning on influences and soundscapes they’d never incorporated while still firmly anchoring themselves in their own distinct personality. “We were leaning into that post-punk world and embracing that part of our DNA, but at the same time still sounding like AFI,” adds drummer Adam Carson.