
There's nothing extraordinarily new about the new album. A few reviewers have said it could've been recorded only a few years after their last album, the self-titled "Alice in Chains", released in 1995. That's true, but it could also easily be described as an album by a band that has a signature sound they won't abandon. By which I mean "Black Gives Way to Blue" doesn't really sound like any other Alice in Chains album, but everything anyone likes about Alice in Chains (absent Layne Staley's tortured howling) is still there. The songs are grinding, churning and droning affairs, but Jerry Cantrell hasn't lost his preference for spooky, sliding guitar hooks and riffs. I think it's interesting that there are now "fast" songs anywhere to be found. All of the songs are slow, even plodding to some extent. There's nothing wrong with that; Alice in Chains best songs are slow, pounding hammers to the skull.
I've read some reviewers who say that William DuVall sounds like Layne Staley, or "enough" like Layne Staley anyway. This isn't exactly true. William DuVall only sounds like Layne Staley in a very few instances on the album. I think what those reviewers are hearing is that DuVall and Cantrell together sound a lot like Staley and Cantrell used to sound like together. Given how prominent their duet singing is in Alice in Chains' music (most of "Alice in Chains" features Cantrell and Staley together, or Cantrell alone) it's no surprise that this resemblance should catch the ear.
Overall I will say, if you like the sound of Alice in Chains and can live without the signature voice of Layne Staley, you'll like this album. That might be too much to ask for some devoted fans who miss Staley's voice. But the musical foundation of the band, in the form of Cantrell, is still there for the enjoying. Here's to another Alice in Chains album, and the sooner the better.
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