Multiplatinum alt-rock band AFI have announced an October 22ndrelease for their highly anticipated new album Burials. The news follows last week’s sneak preview of the album’s first track, “I Hope You Suffer,” which the band posted on their official site, www.afireinside.net.
Rolling Stone described “I Hope You Suffer” (which is now available on iTunes) as an “epic” song,“layering [lead vocalist Davey] Havok’s anguished cries within a lightning storm of distortion, synthetic orchestrations, and volcanic percussion.”
About the album, Havok says, “This record is of silence, of burials, and the burials that result from that silence. It’s of betrayal, cruelty, weakness, anxiety, panic – deep and slow – despair, injury and loss. And in this it is shamefully honest and resolutely unforgiving.”
AFI (Havok, guitarist Jade Puget, bassist Hunter Burgan and drummer Adam Carson) will be performing “I Hope You Suffer” and previewing additional songs from Burials during their upcoming North American tour, which kicks off September 12th at the Varsity Theater at Minneapolis (see itinerary below).
Burials is AFI’s ninth full-length studio album and first for Republic Records. The Cali-based band recorded the album with producer Gil Norton (Pixies, Patti Smith, Foo Fighters) at East West Studios in Los Angeles. The record was mixed by Andrew Scheps (Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers).
Over the course of the past several weeks, the band has posted a series of starkly shot black and white vignettes, the first of which debuted in early April. Together with director Surround (The Killers, TV on the Radio, The Drums, Usher, The Bravery), they’ve created six to date, all of which can be seen at www.afireinside.net.
In other news, a remix of a new AFI song titled “17 Crimes” will serve as the end title track to the upcoming film, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. “17 Crimes” also appears on the soundtrack, which is being released on August 20th.
Since the release of 1995’s debut album Answer That and Stay Fashionable, AFI have written and recorded five top ten hit singles (“Miss Murder,” “Medicate,” “Love Like Winter,” “Silver and Gold,” “Girl’s Not Grey”), hit No. 1 on The Billboard 200 (with the stunning Decemberunderground), garnered critical acclaim and amassed a fiercely loyal international following whose members number in the millions.
Dates for AFI’s headlining tour of North America are as follows:
9/12 – Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater
9/13 – Detroit, MI – St. Andrews Hall
9/15 – Chicago, IL – Humboldt Park/Riot Fest
9/16 – Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
9/18 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
9/19 – Lawrence, KS – Granada Theater
9/21 – Byers, CO – May Farms, Riot Fest
10/7 – Boston, MA – Royale
10/8 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
10/13 – New York, NY – Webster Hall
10/11 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts
10/12 – Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom
10/14 – Pittsburgh, PA – Club Zoo
10/15 – Cincinnati, OH – Bogart’s
10/17 – Houston, TX – Warehouse Live
10/18 – Austin, TX – Mohawk
10/20 – Tempe, AZ – Marquee Theatre
10/22 – Los Angeles, CA – Henry Fonda Theatre
10/23 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues
10/25 – Pomona, CA – Fox Theater
10/26 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues
10/28 – Santa Cruz, CA – The Catalyst
10/29 – Reno, NV – Knitting Factory
10/31 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theatre
11/1 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox at the Market
11/2 – Vancouver, BC – The Commodore Ballroom

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