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Alice in Chains is the most death-obsessed band ever to crack the Top 40. More accurately, its obsession was dying, namely vocalist Layne Staley’s heroin addiction. From 1992’s Dirt to Staley’s death 10 years later, it defined the band. That something could sound so strong yet be so helpless must have been a morbid curiosity to many. I know it was for me. Over the course of a 1996 feature in Rolling Stone, Staley shot up — in his hands, no less — and it was plainly evident. When I read that, I got chills. If he couldn’t keep it together while under scrutiny from Rolling Stone, he didn’t stand a chance.
Check My BrainA Looking in View
The band died along with him. Not only did it lose its unfortunately fertile subject matter, it also lost half of its signature vocal harmonies. After a period of purgatory — Jerry Cantrell’s comparatively low-key solo career, Mike Inez’ wanderings as a sideman, Sean Kinney’s wanderings to who knows where — the band has entered its afterlife. (“Time to start living / Like just before we died”) New singer William DuVall does not represent the band’s rebirth. He is merely its voice as it sails down the river Acheron.
Now its muse is Staley himself. There can be no other way. His identity is too intertwined with the band’s. It admits so in the title track: “Tomorrow’s haunted by you.” I wonder how DuVall feels singing Cantrell’s lyrics about his predecessor. Does he try to channel Staley? He actually sounds a lot like him. DuVall’s high end doesn’t have Staley’s bite, but his harmonies with Cantrell are Staley through and through. It’s like how in comics and movies, people come back from the dead altered. Their costume is a different color, or some aspect of them changes. Staley might have returned as a black man, still singing about himself, only this time in the past tense.
The music reinforces this impression. Black Gives Way to Blue has Alice in Chains’ two main songs: The Slow Grinder and The Acoustic Song. The Slow Grinder germinated with “Man in the Box” and reached full flower on Dirt. The Acoustic Song came about on Sap and Jar of Flies. The Slow Grinders here are up there with the band’s classics. “Check My Brain” throbs with queasy, Tony Iommi-esque bends; “A Looking in View” reserves bends for stinging, end-of-phrase rebukes. The Acoustic Songs are less successful. Stripped of electric bombast, they allowed Staley’s pathos to shine starkly. With DuVall, they sound like Nirvana outtakes. That’s only two blots out of eleven songs, though. The band is still trying to find its voice again. It probably knows, though, that it must sail the Acheron forever more: “There’s no going back / To the place we started from.”
Sounds decent–but who gives a shit? If I wanted to listen to Alice In Chains I certainly wouldn't listen to this.
This is the best, most insightful review I've read of this album. AIC were one of my favorite bands and live acts with Layne, and I've been avoiding this album… I finally got it last week and your reaction says pretty much what I've been thinking. Thanks.
I think this is a great album, and to me it's fucking eerie how much it sounds like the same band as before…
I find it a solid album. As good as Dirt? Maybe not. But giving the band shit for picking back up after Layne killed himself isn't productive. They had more to say and they're saying it. I have yet to find one person who says "it's not AIC without Layne" who will also say "it's not AC/DC without Bon Scott". The guy is dead, the rest of the band wanted to continue (after a long break), that's their prerogative. Cantrell was always the main songwriter (I did not say only…), so of course the music sounds similar. I'm not saying you have to like it, I'm saying that complaining that it's not Layne is useless. He killed himself, blame him.
"Sounds decent–but who gives a shit? If I wanted to listen to Alice In Chains I certainly wouldn't listen to this."
Same thoughts. This is necrophiliac.
Based on the two selections here it's highly unlikely that I'll pick up this record, and it has little to do with Layne Staley and everything to do with the fact that I'm not 15 years old anymore.
I think you're right about the lyrical content of this album Cosmo, and yet I find it much less depressing than the majority of these very cynical comments posted by others. Seriously, it's Alice in Chains guys – it's not like you're gaining credibility by so adamantly stating how much you can't be bothered to give a shit about this one…
Anyway, I think the review may give the impression that DuVall takes more lead vocals than he actually does (particularly on the title track), but regardless of who's singing and what they're singing about, this is still a great rock record. Of course, saying this apparently means I'm still a 15 year old so I guess I better get to my driver's ed class. Maybe mom will let me listen to this tape in the car if I'm lucky.