Ukiah, CA · post-hardcore · goth-punk · horror punk

AFI

3 upcoming festivals ↓

Hardcore kids who became goths and then a genuinely huge rock band — Davey Havok's full-commitment melodrama riding a catalog that runs from East Bay punk to 'Miss Murder'-era anthems.

AFI came together in Ukiah, California in November 1991, while Davey Havok was still in high school, playing alongside original members Mark Stopholese, Vic Chalker and drummer Adam Carson. None of them could play their instruments at the time. The band briefly split when members left for college in 1993, then regrouped after a reunion show convinced them to commit full-time, relocating to Berkeley.

By 1998 the lineup had settled into its long-running form: Havok, Carson, Jade Puget on guitar and keyboards, and Hunter Burgan on bass and keyboards, with founding guitarist Stopholese departing that year. Havok and Carson are the only original members left. Early recordings sat in East Bay hardcore punk before the band pushed toward horror punk and then a darker, gothic post-hardcore sound.

Commercial breakthroughs arrived in stages. The Art of Drowning (2000) gave them their first chart placing, and Sing the Sorrow (2003) turned them into a mainstream act, reaching number five on the Billboard 200, staying on the chart 51 weeks and eventually selling over 1.26 million copies behind singles "Girl's Not Grey" and "Silver and Cold".

Decemberunderground (2006) went to number one and produced "Miss Murder", their best-known single, which topped the modern rock chart and reached number 24 on the Hot 100. AFI have kept releasing albums since, through Crash Love, Burials, a self-titled record, Bodies in 2021 and Silver Bleeds the Black Sun... in 2025, each charting higher than the last.

Read more

post-hardcoregoth-punkhorror punk