"Black Gives Way to Blue"

I finally bought and listened to the new Alice in Chains album, "Black Gives Way to Blue." First, I have to say that it's hard to approach it without any sentiment. Alice in Chains is one of those cherished bands of my youth; they were one of the bands I really fell in love in high school and my early college days, when I was heavily influenced by the Grunge scene and about the time when I really started to figure out what my adult musical tastes were. The number of times I've listened to "Dirt" or any other Alice in Chains album probably numbers in the hundreds. And though my musical tastes have continued to evolve since that time, I've never really let go of my attachment to Alice in Chains. I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Layne Staley in 2002, and had assumed that without their signature frontman Alice in Chains were probably dead. And I was suspicious when I first heard that the band intended to record new material with a new singer, but gradually came around to the idea if only in the hope that they would produce something on par with their masterworks of the early 90s. While I don't think the new Alice in Chains rivals "Dirt" by any measure, I do have to say that it's not a bad way to start a comeback.

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.