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Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue
| Avclub |
| A true grunge innovator, Alice In Chains always left a better aftertaste than most of the genre’s imitators. Why guitarist Jerry Cantrell and company would risk sullying that reputation by recruiting a new singer to replace late frontman Layne Staley is anyone’s guess. The crazy thing: That risk has pretty much paid off. Black Gives Way To Blue, the group’s first album since Staley’s 2002 death, is packed with filthy, vertiginous riffs and new guy William DuVall’s impressively sympathetic growl, all of which jell to form a convincing extension of Alice In Chains’ smoky, gloomy sound. Not everything works: The cock-rock chorus of “Last Of My Kind” is both depressing and funny, and there’s doubtlessly a depth—both in timbre and in lyric—that’s missing from the Staley-less lineup. Closing the disc, the title track comes on like a modern-day “Tuesday’s Gone,” all slow, moody leads and sumptuous keys (provided, strangely enough, by Elton John)—which gets a bit unsettling when DuVall groans lyrics like “imitations are pale” and “haunted by your ghost.” In lesser hands, those words could have been suicide. But DuVall, along with the rest of Alice In Chains, has turned a questionable career move into a moving tribute—and a shockingly decent album....full text |
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| Boston |
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Hope, a new beginning/ Time, time to start living.’’ It’s no coincidence these are the first words you hear on the new Alice in Chains album. Six years after the death of frontman Layne Staley and nearly 14 since its last album, the Seattle quartet is ready to reopen the sludge factory for business. And business is good. “Black Gives Way to Blue’’ is similar enough to the group’s classic, hard-but-contemplative sound without descending into creepy or desperate mimicry. New singer-guitarist William DuVall (above), who splits vocal duties with guitarist-songwriter Jerry Cantrell, acquits himself nicely in conjuring those specific, mesmerizingly drone-y Alice in Chains harmonies. The guitars swing from menacing electrics to swaying acoustics. And even though healing and hope are welcome recurring themes, there are plenty of dark corners, gloomy ruminations, and bleak pronouncements to please the catharsis-through-commiseration crowd. Highlights include first single, “Check ...full text |
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| Rollingstone |
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In the Nineties, Alice in Chains went multiplatinum on a grunge-metal sound that was like the soundtrack to singer Layne Staley's heroin addiction, which killed him in 2002. On the band's first album in 14 years, sludgy guitars are back, and they're coupled with vocals by guitarist Jerry Cantrell and new addition William DuVall, each of whom approximates Staley's tortured-zombie crooning. The hard-charging "Check My Brain" is as hooky as the old hits, and the title track — a Staley tribute featuring Elton John on piano — is pretty in a calm-after-the-storm way. What Black lacks are great tunes and a sense of can't-look-away drama. ...full text |
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