By way of a darkly ambiguous and very dramatic video, AFI have announced they will be returning with a new album this fall.

It’s been four years since AFI’s last release, Crash Love, but lead Davey Havok has remained busy with other projects, such as the composition of his first book. Pop Kids, which discusses today’s teenagers and their obsession with reality TV, fashion, social networking and more, was released earlier this month, and is sure to cause as much a stir as AFI’s music has for the last 18 years.

Next to nothing has been said publicly about this pending new album, the band’s ninth, however. The video they’ve released also alludes to little, but begs promise this next LP will be a dynamite one, at that. Watch as Havok stoically marches toward what would feel to be the resurrection of the band:

UPDATE (7/23): A recent Rolling Stone article reveals AFI’s new album will be entitled Burials, and set for release October 22nd. In the article, frontman Davey Havok had this to say about the forthcoming record:

It is certainly – embarrassingly so – a very dark album, especially in its candidness, which is something, to be honest, that’s disappointing to me. 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.