Today sees the release of MATERIAL (Blaqknoise/Kobalt), the much-anticipated new album from BLAQK AUDIO, the electronic alter ego of AFI’s Davey Havok and Jade Puget. Fans can now pick up the album via iTunes HERE.

Over the course of the past few weeks, fans have been given various sneak previews of the album, starting with the release of lead track ‘Anointed,’ which can be streamed HERE. Then came theBillboard premiere of ‘Waiting To Be Told,’ the UPROXX debut of ‘First To Love,’ and a Pandora album preview. Last week Puget and Havok teamed with Apple Music and VEVO for ‘Anointed,’the companion video to the duo’s lead single. Shot by Adam Mason, Chris Tew and Chris Merch, the video resembles a particularly terrifying 80s’-era computer video game.

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘ANOINTED’

Produced and recorded by Puget, MATERIAL is Blaqk Audio’s third release following 2012’s Bright Black Heaven and 2007’s Cexcells. Though best known for their work with multi-platinum rock band AFI, Havok and Puget’s shared love of electronic music runs deep. Havok, who counts Devo’s Freedom of Choice and Duran Duran’s self-titled debut among the first albums he owned, saw his tastes evolve over the years from the synth pop of Erasure and Pet Shop Boys to Depeche Mode and ultimately to the heavier, darker Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front 242 and Lords of Acid. Later, Havok immersed himself in the “futurepop” genre, which combined dark dance-y electronica with melodic vocals. From roughly 1999 to 2003, his contemporary musical diet consisted almost exclusively of artists falling under the industrial/ebm/futurepop/bigbeat/trance umbrella.

Puget shared his bandmate’s long-standing love of electronic music, beginning with a passion for Daft Punk, Depeche Mode, Ministry, Squarepusher, Nitzer Ebb, and Front 242, spending a great deal of time programming electronic music, which in turn led to a plan to start an entirely electronic side project: no organic instruments, just synths, keyboards, drum machines, and software.