There's a shroud of mystery surrounding the video for "Love Like Winter," the second single from AFI's latest LP, Decemberunderground. The band refuses to discuss the clip at any length, claiming they'd like to preserve that element of surprise for their diehard fans. Likewise, the video's director, Marc Webb (Evanescence, My Chemical Romance), is hesitant to tell all.

But the band and director were willing to let a few details slip about the video that AFI spent two whole days last week shooting -- the treatment for which was inspired by Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill," Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" and the work of Akira Kurosawa.

When asked to describe the video -- which is more story-centered than performance-based -- Webb promised "a darker vision of AFI" set in "a deserted, cold landscape, shot in the winter of the Southern Hemisphere -- at night." Oh, and there's going to be tons of snow and ice, as well as an overall theme of "love and fear."

"It's going to be a dark, cinematic thing again, like our last video ['Miss Murder']," guitarist Jade Puget explained. "Miss Murder" earned AFI the Moonman for Best Rock Video at last month's Video Music Awards (see [article id="1539952"]"Underdog Night At The VMAs: Panic, Gnarls, Blunt, Chamillionaire Win Big"[/article]).

"We've always liked the cinematic flavor, and there's going to be some snow involved," Puget said. "I don't want to reveal too much. The song's only two minutes and 47 seconds long, so there can't be too much of a plot. There might be another female protagonist or antagonist in this one. Maybe some drowning -- just a lot of that imagery that has coincided with everything we've been doing. We want to keep some continuity there."

"I could drown," frontman Davey Havok revealed, before clamping his mouth shut like a Venus Flytrap. "I'll give you that."

For Havok, "Love Like Winter" was an obvious pick for Decemberunderground's second single. "It is actually one of my favorite songs on the album," he said.

"The crowd's reaction to [the song] has been great," Havok continued. "I think it really lends itself to visuals, and I think it's very cinematic and very movie-like." Havok described "Love Like Winter" balancing a "layered cinematic quality" with a "pop arena-esque anthem nature" -- and explained that that track is "not your typical big anthem song. It's got a little more to it."

After wrapping up a string of West Coast gigs supported by Tiger Army and Saosin with a show in Long Beach, California, on Friday, AFI plan to spend the rest of 2006 on the road -- but not in the U.S. Next month, they'll be heading to Europe for a brief run. Then they are off to Japan and Australia. But Puget promised that AFI will be back in the States this spring for another big headlining tour.