AFI Share the Dark + Brooding ‘Tied to a Tree’ From Upcoming ‘Bodies’ LP

UPDATE: AFI have now released the video for "Tied to a Tree" that can be viewed in full below.

In February, Gothic alt-punk mainstays AFI announced their first album in nearly four years, the upcoming Bodies, alongside the simultaneous release of two rocking singles from the effort. Weeks later, the band followed those with the effort's bouncy "Dulcería." On Tuesday (May 25), the Davey Havok-led act dropped yet another tune from the album, the acoustic-driven, softly somber rumination "Tied to a Tree."

The new track is something of a departure — or an evolution — for the veteran California rockers known as A Fire Inside, a point the group has noted themselves. With gentle acoustic guitars and a chorus that opens up into a swell of ethereal but somewhat ominous energy, the number takes AFI's emo and post-hardcore past and turns it on its head.

Listen to the song and read its lyrics down toward the bottom of this post.

"This is not only my favorite song on the record, but an exemplification of the evolution of the band," Jade Puget, AFI's guitarist, said of "Tied to a Tree."

The rocker added of Bodies, "Anyone who knows our catalog knows that no two records really sit together. Some sit a little closer, maybe. We do certain things, just by virtue of who we are, that are consistent, but those things come about organically. Every time we do something, I have to judge it on its own merits. Some fans are going to judge a new album or a new song based on what's come before. But as artists, we can't do that because it would only hinder our creativity."

Bodies arrives on June 11 — pre-orders are available now.

AFI, "Tied to a Tree" Lyrics

In the blackest hole hid the whitest hare, with his pale, pink eyes, you knew were once mine. Bound, by dying stars, to a burning tree you give searing stares, tied up by your hair where we used to meet to see how we would look in the dying light. Down the blackest hole, chase the wraith and flee for his pale pink eyes still belong to me. By a dying star, to a burning tree, you were bound by your hair and I left you there, where we used to meet, to see how we would look in the dying light, to see how good you look in my dying light there with me, with the whitest hare, with me in the blackness, with the pink eyes, in the blackest hole.

AFI, "Tied to a Tree"

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