Step into the fractured dreamscape of “Behind the Clock,” the shadowy lead single from AFI‘s twelfth studio album Silver Bleeds the Black Sun…, unleashed on October 3, 2025, via Run For Cover Records—their first since 2021’s stark Bodies. Davey Havok, the East Bay enigma whose operatic wails have propelled AFI from hardcore roots in Answer That and Stay Fashionable to goth-tinged masterpieces like Sing the Sorrow, channels David Lynch’s nightmarish cinema here, self-produced with bandmates Jade Puget, Hunter Burgan, and Adam Carson in a 10-month frenzy of distortion and dread. This track’s churning bass, effects-soaked guitars echoing Bauhaus and Killing Joke, and ethereal synths craft a post-punk requiem for splintered selves, with lines like “I am Freddy Madison, I’m Betty Elms / Nikki Grace and Susan Blue in glitter hell” invoking Lost Highway’s time-looped Fred, Mulholland Drive’s dual Betty/Diane, and Inland Empire’s Nikki/Susan—avatars of identity’s abyss.
As Silver Bleeds the Black Sun…’s 10-track odyssey of dreamy death rock and anarcho-punk surrealism—drawing from Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie, and Echo & the Bunnymen—”Behind the Clock” pulses with the album’s core motifs of sanctuary’s absence and fractured realities, akin to “Holy Visions'” tongue-in-cheek religious mockery or “The Bird of Prey“‘s predatory haunt. Directed by Gilbert Trejo, its black-and-white video peers through keyholes and gears, sublimating Havok’s marrow-deep confessions amid TR/ST tour dates. Dive into the Behind the Clock lyrics below and unravel Havok’s Lynchian labyrinth. Don’t miss other Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… tracks like “Holy Visions” for more of their goth-fueled reinvention.
Lyrics of Behind the Clock by AFI
[Verse 1]
I Am Freddy Madison, I’m Betty Elms
Nikki Grace And Susan Blue In Glitter Hell
In Glitter Hell
[Chorus]
Green Light Lit, The Blue Remake
No One Will Care, Will Care To See
Thriller Killer Been Revealed
He’s Inside You, She’s Inside Me
She’s Inside Me
[Verse 2]
I Am Broken Betty Elms, Behind The
Clock
Susan Blue And Nikki Grace, A Starless Walk
A Starless Walk, Walk
[Chorus]
Green Light Lit, The Blue Remake
No One Will Care, Will Care To See
Thriller Killer Been Revealed
She’s Inside You, He’s Inside Me
He’s Inside Me
[Bridge]
One Stop, Me Moving Toward The Other
Back And Forth From Utter Peril To Total Disaster
One Stop, Me Moving Toward The Other
One Stop, One Stop
One Stop, One Stop
One Stop
[Chorus]
Green Lit In The Blue Remake
No One Will Care, Will Care To See
Thriller Killer Been Revealed
He’s Inside You, You’re Inside Me
[Outro]
Green Lit In The Blue Remake
That No One Cares, Will Care To See
Thriller Killer Been Revealed
I’m Inside You, You’re Inside Me
And Total Disaster, And Total Disaster
One Stop, One Stop
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