Biography
Blaqk Audio emerged in the latter half of the 2000s as the covert electronic outlet for AFI's core songwriters Davey Havok and Jade Puget, debuting with the goth-dance album CexCells. Drawing from industrial dance, new wave, and EBM, the duo channeled their affinity for shadowy, beat-driven material and claimed the top spot on the U.S. Dance charts across three successive releases. The decade closed with their fourth collection of sleek synth-pop revivalism, Only Things We Love, issued in 2019. Early in the following decade the pair unveiled a fifth album, Beneath the Black Palms, then swiftly followed it in 2022 with Trop d'amour.
Although Havok and Puget had begun shaping tracks for the project well before AFI's breakthrough Sing the Sorrow appeared in 2003, the songs remained shelved for several years. The commercial ascent of their primary band's major-label debut left scant room for side work, yet Puget continued weaving programmed textures into AFI's sound on both Sing the Sorrow and the 2006 release Decemberunderground. By early 2007 the two finally finished what they had started, with Havok handling vocals and Puget overseeing all other elements, and Interscope issued the fully electronic, dance-and-goth-oriented CexCells that August. Fusing equal parts Depeche Mode, New Order, and Pet Shop Boys, the project revived a distinctly nocturnal 1980s aesthetic for the 2000s.
In the interim the pair supplied music to the soundtrack of the film Abduction and to the Batman: Arkham City video game. They resurfaced in 2012 with the second album of 1980s synth-pop leanings, Bright Black Heaven. Four years later that same palette merged with colder, heavier textures on Material, steering Blaqk Audio toward a sharper, more glacial approach exemplified by "First to Love."
Following another stretch devoted to AFI, during which the band recorded and released its tenth studio album plus an EP, Havok and Puget returned to Blaqk Audio and delivered the pulsing Only Things We Love. Released in early 2019, the set featured the driving single "The Viles." The next year the duo caught listeners off guard with the brief EP Beneath the Black Palms (Side A), serving as an initial preview of the full-length Beneath the Black Palms. Another charged exercise in industrial dance and EBM, the album spotlighted the track "Hiss." After switching back to AFI for the 2021 album Bodies, the two executed yet another rapid pivot in this busy stretch, issuing Blaqk Audio's sixth LP, the frosty, Depeche Mode-referencing Trop d'amour.
Although Havok and Puget had begun shaping tracks for the project well before AFI's breakthrough Sing the Sorrow appeared in 2003, the songs remained shelved for several years. The commercial ascent of their primary band's major-label debut left scant room for side work, yet Puget continued weaving programmed textures into AFI's sound on both Sing the Sorrow and the 2006 release Decemberunderground. By early 2007 the two finally finished what they had started, with Havok handling vocals and Puget overseeing all other elements, and Interscope issued the fully electronic, dance-and-goth-oriented CexCells that August. Fusing equal parts Depeche Mode, New Order, and Pet Shop Boys, the project revived a distinctly nocturnal 1980s aesthetic for the 2000s.
In the interim the pair supplied music to the soundtrack of the film Abduction and to the Batman: Arkham City video game. They resurfaced in 2012 with the second album of 1980s synth-pop leanings, Bright Black Heaven. Four years later that same palette merged with colder, heavier textures on Material, steering Blaqk Audio toward a sharper, more glacial approach exemplified by "First to Love."
Following another stretch devoted to AFI, during which the band recorded and released its tenth studio album plus an EP, Havok and Puget returned to Blaqk Audio and delivered the pulsing Only Things We Love. Released in early 2019, the set featured the driving single "The Viles." The next year the duo caught listeners off guard with the brief EP Beneath the Black Palms (Side A), serving as an initial preview of the full-length Beneath the Black Palms. Another charged exercise in industrial dance and EBM, the album spotlighted the track "Hiss." After switching back to AFI for the 2021 album Bodies, the two executed yet another rapid pivot in this busy stretch, issuing Blaqk Audio's sixth LP, the frosty, Depeche Mode-referencing Trop d'amour.
Albums
Blue Cherry
2022
Beneath the Black Palms
2020
Only Things We Love
2019
Material
2016
Bright Black Heaven
2012
CexCells
2007
Singles
