It’s a powerful metaphor, simultaneously menacing and reassuring, and it’s the first thing that connects the Afghan Whigs’ first album in 16 years with that band’s revered catalog. Other than doing the covers for that tour — the Queenie Lyons and Frank Ocean songs — we never talked, not one fucking time, about making a record. I’ll put it to you this way: If I don’t think I can perform a song sincerely and with conviction, I won’t do it.