AFI's frontman Davey Havok talks about the upcoming 'Burials' album

AFI's frontman Davey Havok talks about the upcoming 'Burials' album via RollingStone

"It is certainly – embarrassingly so – a very dark album, especially in its candidness, which is something, to be honest, that's disappointing to me," he says. "It's something I just keep coming back to – I can't escape it. It's always a joy to me to reach away from that. But the themes and sentiments on this record are within that darker realm and that darker tone because I've always been honest in everything that I write. It's beyond me. I'm crippled. There's nothing I can do but be genuine in my writing, and that's what came out this time – without any sort of pointed effort."

"I really feel [the title] speaks of the overall sentiment of the record," he continues. "The album really speaks of a burial of a silence and the burials that result from those silences of panic and anxiety and betrayal and cruelty – and a loss of self, a loss of stability."

But Burials is a change-of-pace for AFI – just not the kind Havok intended. It's a heavily layered, grandiose set that veers sharply from the raw simplicity of Crash Love. New single "I Hope You Suffer" points toward this epic new direction, layering Havok's anguished cries within a lightning storm of distortion, synthetic orchestrations, and volcanic percussion.

That process of laborious writing and hi-fidelity recording isn't as fashionable in 2013 as it was in the Pet Sounds era. But it's the only way AFI know how to work. Burials is an ornate brand of misery, a lush labor of love."We just come from the place of wanting to be 100% happy with the works we create, rather than fulfilling some sort of demand, whether it be from a label or a consumer," Havok says. "It's really the modern standard of short attention spans, and it puts us in a difficult position. Quantity typically eclipses quality these days, but we can't bow to that."