AFI give 'Black Sails In The Sunset' 25th anniversary reissue (exclusive vinyl!)

AFI have just announced a 25th anniversary reissue of their career-altering 1999 album Black Sails In The Sunset with three bonus tracks, including the never-before-released song “Weight of Words,” the Japanese B-side “Who Knew?,” and the vinyl-exclusive track “Lower It.” We’ve teamed with the band on an exclusive oriole vinyl variant, which is limited to 500 (that’s a mock-up above). Pre-order yours in the BV shop now while they last!

UPDATE: Our variant quickly sold out, but we’ve now also got an orange variant in stock.

Leading up to this announcement, AFI have been reflecting on the album via social media. Here’s some of what they’ve said…

“Black Sails will always be very dear to me. It represents the most profound artistic turning point of the band. With this record came Hunter’s permanence and Jade’s arrival. It is the inchoate definition of what AFI would become and is today.” – Davey Havok

“Twenty-five years passing allows for a degree of revisionist history, I admit, but I recall only an effortlessness to the rehearsals as we worked on the songs, accumulating an album worth of “keepers” in a rare, quick burst of hyper-productivity. I feel the Black Sails era was the moment AFI began to showcase our potential as a band rather than hint at it.” – Adam Carson

“Black Sails in the Sunset is not only a crucial album in the story of AFI but represents a pivotal event in my life. It’s the beginning of a journey with Davey, Adam, and Hunter that continues today, 25 years later.” – Jade Puget

In our AFI album guide, we wrote:

Black Sails in the Sunset is the first album by AFI’s current and classic lineup, and it’s also the first time they finally fused their punk, metal, horror, goth, and pop influences into one seamless thing. It’s still overall a whiplash-inducing hardcore punk record, but you can also hear the seeds being sewn for the massive breakthrough AFI would have on Sing the Sorrow. They previously started exploring darker tones and themes on 1997’s Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes and 1998’s A Fire Inside EP, but with the addition of Jade Puget on guitar, they finally mastered it for the entirety of a near-flawless record on Black Sails. Davey is still yelling and screaming a lot more on this record than on later releases, but it’s also the first time he comes into his own as a singer. And it’s still far from a radio-friendly album, but AFI’s got hooks on this one. The gang vocal chorus of “Exsanguination” and Davey’s refrain on “No Poetic Device” are impossible to get out of your head after you’ve heard them a few times, and “The Last Kiss” is as catchy and cathartic as any of AFI’s biggest hits. And for all its whiplash-inducing glory, some of Black Sails‘ best moments come when AFI embrace the slower, more somber side of their sound that would really come to life on Sing the Sorrow. The mournful closer “God Called In Sick Today” and the sludgy punk ballad “Clove Smoke Catharsis” (one of two songs on this album featuring guest vocals by The Offspring frontman Dexter Holland, whose Nitro Records AFI were signed to for most of the ’90s) established AFI as a band capable of looking far beyond the confines of punk and making great music that defied easy categorization.

Pick up our exclusive vinyl variant of the new reissue here.

Tracklist
Side A:
Strength Through Wounding
Porphyria
Exsanguination
Malleus Maleficarum
Narrative Of Soul Against Soul
Clove Smoke Catharsis
The Prayer Position
No Poetic Device

Side B:
Weathered Tome
The Last Kiss
At A Glance
God Called In Sick Today
Midnight Sun*
Lower It**
Who Knew?**
Weight Of Words***

* Previous hidden track
** Bonus track
*** Previously unreleased

AFI will support Thirty Seconds to Mars on tour this summer, alongside Poppy and KennyHoopla, including a show at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on August 17. All dates:

Thirty Seconds to Mars / AFI / Poppy / KennyHoopla — 2024 Tour Dates
7/26: Auburn, WA – White River Amphitheatre
7/27: Ridgefield, WA – RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheatre
7/30: West Valley City, UT – Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
7/31: Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
8/2: Maryland Heights, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
8/3: Nashville, TN – Ascend Amphitheater
8/6: Clarkston, MI – Pine Knob Music Theatre
8/7: Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center
8/9: Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center
8/10: Chicago, IL – Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
8/12: Toronto, Ontario – Budweiser Stage
8/14: Camden, NJ – Freedom Mortgage Pavilion
8/15: Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion
8/17: Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center
8/18: Mansfield, MA – Xfinity Center
8/20: Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion
8/21: Atlanta, GA – Lakewood Amphitheatre
8/23: West Palm Beach, FL – iThink Financial Amphitheatre
8/24: Tampa, FL – MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre
8/27: Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion
8/29: The Woodlands, TX – The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
8/30: Austin, TX – Germania Insurance Amphitheater
9/1: Phoenix, AZ – Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
9/4: Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre