So you know I love Alice in Chains. You know I’m proud of them for making it work without Layne. You know I love Black Gives Way to Blue, and you should therefore be able to assume to that I love the song “Acid Bubble.”

But I don’t love the interactive video for the song, which allows the viewer to roam freely around the environment of the clip. ‘Cause being able to spin around 360 degrees, Google maps-style, sounds awesome, but the bottom line is this: There’s really nothing that interesting to see. You can move around all you want, but you’ll probably get bored after a minute or so, when you realize your options are still limited to one kinda meh image versus another kinda meh image.

That makes the gimmick roughly equivalent to the recent 3D trend in feature films; even when the 3D looks better than other 3D has looked in the past — as with Avatard — it kinda doesn’t matter, ’cause if the story sucks, all you’re left with is a bunch of pretty pictures.

But this video doesn’t even really have any pretty pictures. So the gimmick is even more shrug-worthy than 3D.

Check out the interactive version of the video here. The non-interactive version is below. Both were directed by Nick Goso.

-AR

At the Golden Gods thing back in April, I really perked up when Alice In Chains’ Jerry Cantrell came down the press line. It was surprising and weird because I was not aware that his band remained significant to me. But there I was, rudely turning away from Zakk Wylde in mid-sentence to beam fanatically at Cantrell and bassist Mike Inez. The two seemed spot-lit and energetic; there was a sense of relief that the band had returned from the brink, and with a fucking awesome album to boot. I couldn’t take my eyes off them the whole night, not least of all during their innumerable trips to the stage to collect awards for Black Gives Way To Blue before a roomful of applause and well wishes. So deserved. Awesome.

This is a big turnaround for me after a decade of intense AIC fatigue, during which I suffered actual nausea from the harmonies of “Heaven Beside You,” and the opening chords of “Rooster” triggered an immediate lunge for the radio dial. (The latter is partially my fault, ‘cuz I remember a beer blast at which I stood guard over the stereo as that song stayed on repeat for like two hours.) I’ll never tire of Cantrell’s masterful solo in “Man In The Box” or the majesty of “Down In A Hole,” but otherwise it seemed that by 2000 we’d all gotten enough Alice In Chains for a lifetime. Not to mention the proliferate AIC clones complete with insta-Laynes — which really riled me cuz if anyone, it’s Cantrell whom a smart band would replicate. And, sadly, Staley himself was pretty much a super-bummer on two legs before long. Semi-consciously, I began to ignore their existence. Me and Alice In Chains were over. Such a great band, such a shame.

But, yes, some time apart and a tardiculous new album have healed the oft-rocky relationship between AIC and my ears. We’re back together, stronger than ever, and it’s no exagerration to state that I still can’t stop listening to BGW2B, a pop-doom metal masterpiece that finally brings some closure to the Staley situation (and it even impacted the new Soilwork record). Actually, I always think of Type O Negative’s Peter Steele when I hear the album’s big finale, “Private Hell.” Maybe you do, too.

-ADF

Alice In Chains embarks on the BlackDiamondSkye tour with Deftones and Mastodon starting September 16. Get dates here.

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

There weren’t any real hot button topics this week, so we decided to just play a fun game that used to keep Vince and Axl occupied for many a lunch period when they were kids:

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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When you tune into the premiere broadcast of The Second Annual Revolver Golden Gods Awards tomorrow night on VH1 classic, you’ll see the final public appearance of our beloved Ronnie James Dio. You’ll also see Jerry Cantrell and Mike Inez of Alice In Chains, winner of roughly half of the meaningful awards, enjoying the metal community’s validation of their potentially dicey comeback effort, the magnificent Black Gives Way To Blue. You’ll see metal codgers like Rob Halford, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, and Lemmy bathe in much-deserved adulation. You’ll also see potentially ho-hum performances pumped up by mega-drummers: Rob Zombie with Joey Jordison (in his debut performance), Fear Factory with Gene Hoglan, Brian Posehn with John Tempesta (and Brett Anderson girl call me srsly) and Slash with Dave Grohl.

But at a mere 60 minutes, the broadcast can’t capture all of the April 8 event’s super moments and silly gaffes. Here’s a few things you won’t see:

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In the last few years, something seemed to happen and I barely noticed. Suddenly, I’m no longer the young kid at the show. I’m one of the guys hiding out by the bar. I’m not crowd surfing, not covered in sweat with my shirt off, and I’m certainly not moshing. I’m also not randomly yelling “Slayer!”, but that seems to span all demographics. I became… (gulp)… an adult. I don’t know what the range is in the ages of the followers of MetalSucks, but I’ll assume that it’s a mix of younger and older metal fans. I am 29 years old, but I still feel relatively young and energetic considering my opening salvo. I’m the youngest member of my band, and younger than a good majority of my friends in bands and the industry.

With that said, I think there comes a time for all metal heads, and probably all adults for that matter, when you look at what is popular amongst the true youth culture (16-24), and you feel as if not only do you not relate to it, but it feels alien, as if it’s creation was not meant for your consumption (which it wasn’t) – and it also seems inferior to music that you grew up with. I’m only 29, and I’m already having “back in my day” moments. It kind of scared me, and I began to wonder if I was being obtuse and a little too set in my ways, or if my analysis was accurate.

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The fact that anyone was treating the Alice in Chains/Deftones/Mastodon “BlackDiamondSkye” tour as a rumor was always pretty ridiculous; the three bands’ “hints” that the tour was coming were about as subtle as Cannibal Corpse lyrics. Still, I’m sure everyone will be elated to know that the tour has been officially announced.

I know I am! I’m not even that big a Deftones fan or anything, but they put on a killer show. An Alice in Chains and Mastodon obviously pwn live. I guess the only question now is, “Will tickets cost a fucking fortune?” Based on the size of the venues the tour is hitting – which, I gots to admit, are bigger than I would have guessed (with the exception of The Joint in Vegas, which will still probably charge an arm and a leg) – I would wager that they will. But the tour doesn’t even start ’til September, so you’ve got time to start saving now.

Here’s the first batch of dates; more will follow soon…

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April 20th was circled in my calendar well in advance, and not just because it’s holiday we at the MS Mansion take very seriously — April 20th marked the biggest release date of the year thus far for metal releases with new offerings from Periphery, Ratt, Sevendust, another greatest hits repacking from AC/DC, Circa Survive, Airbourne and more. Let’s see how those releases fared in their first week out, as well as how other metal and hard rock records are performing after the jump.

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A lot of media outlets are treating this fall’s Alice in Chains/Deftones/Mastodon tour as rumor since there’s been no official announcement yet, and while I appreciate their caution, let’s be real here, folks – this tour is happening. For one thing, there’s this YouTube teaser clip, which, scrambled though it is, clearly features music by all three bands:

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Soundgarden reunion rumors have been flying around almost as long as Soundgarden have been broken up. (And in case you lost count, this Friday will be the thirteenth anniversary of the break-up. Someone will have been born and bar mitzvahed in the time since Soundgarden were last together! Egads!) Chris Cornell pretty much let the cat out of the bag that the band is reuniting back in January, and now they’ve announced that they’re headlining Lollapalooza in August. (Unfortunately, the rest of the line-up for that festival is pretty blech, especially from a fan of half-way decent rock; there’s Social Distortion and, uh, that’s it. If the artist on the bill I’d be most excited to see that isn’t Soundgarden is Erykah Badu, well, that’s a festival I won’t be attending.)

And, as usual, my enthusiasm is tempered with cynicism.

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That Ryan Adams likes metal isn’t news. As you can see/hear in the above video, dude even recorded a cover of my favorite Alice in Chains song once (which, admittedly, is not AIC’s most metal song, but still, I don’t see The Arcade Fire doing it). Still, I was pretty surprised to read on Metal Injection that he’s released the following statement via his official website:

“We’re going to begin pressing ORION — my most legit METAL record — on vinyl next week… P.S. Not a single B.C. Rich was hurt in the making of this record.”

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Apparently Sade has a new hit record and scored the #1 record last week. Who knew? Good for her… Sade’s pretty rad. I know at least one death metal dude who will be REALLY psyched to hear this news.

But I’m guessing you all care more about the new High on Fire record. Let’s find out how that and other metal and hard rock releases charted last week after the jump.

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I’ve always loved acoustic interpretations of music that isn’t necessarily meant to be played acoustically. Alice in Chains’ Unplugged record, which incidentally chronicled Layne Staley’s last live appearance with the band, is undoubtedly one of my Desert Island Top 5 albums. I love it more than any one Alice in Chains album, and not just because it’s got a great mix of songs from all of them; there’s just something about the instrumentation and the performance that’s absolutely captivating.

While MS reader Ben Watson didn’t go so far as to say that Devin Townsend’s acoustic performance in Redmon, WA on Saturday was Desert Island-worthy but he did seem to have a great time at the gig. Ben tells us that Devin played a bunch of songs from Ki in between fits of guitar noodling, and that he debuted a bunch of new songs that “had tentative lyrics and titles that he ‘bumbled’ through.”

Here’s footage Ben captured of the new song “Radial Highway,” which Devin [accurately, in my opinion] proclaims “sounds a lot like Trainfire.” Devin shows off some tasty slide guitar licks then flubs a section, and he definitely appears to be “bumbling” through the lyrics… but it’s all good. Hopefully we’ll hear this song in its fully realize glory on either Deconstruction or Ghost, the forthcoming 3rd and 4th albums in the Devin Townsend Project suite.

You can watch most of Devin’s acoustic performance here (skip to the 01:12:00 mark) and here.

-VN

So the nominations for the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards have been announced. The nominees for “Best Metal Performance” are slightly less embarrassing than usual – I’m assuming because the popularity of metal is on the rise, so some bands with actual talent are enjoying the spotlight. Here they are:

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I feel like I’ve been ragging on Alice in Chains a little bit lately, and I feel bad about that because I’m a huge Alice in Chains fan and I love Black Gives Way to Blue.

That being said, the band’s latest video, for the beautiful “Your Decision,” is slightly worse than the video for “Check My Brain.” Which is weird, because the director, Stephen Schuster, also directed the band’s totally awesome video for “A Looking In View.”

My beef isn’t with the presence of some chick named Amanda Fields, who was apparently on Project Runway (I’ve never seen it). I mean, she’s either had too much work done or just naturally looks like a freakin’ alien, but that’s neither here nor there. No, my complaint is mostly that the video is just lame – it seems to be taking its cues from Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, but in the worst possible way. What the themes of that film have to do with this song isn’t clear, and a lot of the symbolic imagery subsequently feels forced and trite.

Still an awesome song, though.

-AR

Them Crooked Vultures debuted in the Top 20… how ’bout that. Not surprising given the cast of characters, I suppose. MetalSucks guest blogger Devin mothafuckin’ Townsend debuted in the Top 200, while a few other metal releases maintained. It’s all holiday shlock and best-of compilations from hereon out.

[UPDATE: Devin will be calling in to the Metal Injection Livecast tonight at 8pm EST! Make sure you tune in; get details here.]

Soundscan shite after the jump…

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Well, I guess Alice in Chains can’t hit a home run every time.

The metal-related iPhone apps thus far – or, at least the ones I’ve seen – have, by and large, sucked. Oddly enough, Metallica, who haven’t released too many products worth owning this (or last) decade, have the best ones: their Live Metallica and Tap Tap Revenge apps are both totally solid. I didn’t get the Suffocation one, but Invisible Oranges’ review didn’t make it sound too appealing.

And now there’s the AIC “Mobile Roadie” app, which, quite frankly, is waste of 99 cents for anyone but the most die-hard (and brain dead) Alice fan. The app allows you to listen to a few songs from the album, which you probably already own; watch some videos, which you a) may have already seen or b) were capable of watching on your iPhone via YouTube anyway; read a bio of the band that is pretty much just a glorified “AIC are awesome” press release; look a discography which would suggest that Black is the band’s debut; get tour dates and news which, again, you could already do on an iPhone; post on a “fan wall;” or play with some art from the Black album booklet. And, seriously, even if you’re high, it’s fun to play with that art for precisely .02 seconds. This shit is lame, lame, lame.

Don’t believe me? Watch the video below. It pretty much demonstrates that your buck would be better spent on almost anything but this app.

If anyone knows of any metal apps that are actually worth a damn, let us know…

-AR

Some people are talented. Some people are awesome. An even rarer breed happens to be both talented and awesome. Photographer Justina Villanueva is one of those people. If you go to metal shows in New York or New Jersey, you may have noticed this diminutive young lady snapping pics of some of your favorite acts. You may have seen her work on websites like ours (ex. Alice In Chains at Irving Plaza) and BrooklynVegan (ex. Converge at Europa).

Now’s a great time to acquaint yourself with Ms. Villanueva’s work, as she has just released the premiere issue of her self-titled zine. Issue 1: Basements, Blood and Noise features spectacular shots of bands like Black Anvil, Burnt By The Sun, Marduk, Municipal Waste, and Poison The Well, as well as the aforementioned AIC. Whether you’re an old fucker like me or a youngster that has never so much as seen a zine, I strongly recommend that you buy yourself a copy.

-GS

[Gary Suarez is a lover of fine art. He usually manages Wholly Diver (a Dio tribute site) and the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

In September we saw Alice in Chains play a pretty amazing show, and it looks like we’ll get a chance to see ‘em again in March: the band has announced a headlining North American tour, scheduled to begin in February.

If you’ve never seen AIC live, you need to. Even without Layne Staley, they kick ass in a major way. And now that Black Gives Way to Blue has been out for awhile, hopefully they’ll start to incorporate more new material into their set.

Dates after the jumperooni.

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A tweet from Suicide Silence has just alerted me to the fact that the band recorded a cover of Alice in Chains’ classic “Them Bones” as an iTunes-only bonus track for their latest offering, No Time to Bleed.

Let me tell you what I like about this:

• Alice in Chains are not the band you’d guess Suicide Silence would cover.
• It forces Suicide Silence to do a real guitar solo.
• Suicide Silence truly made the song their own, and didn’t just do a version so faithful to the original as to render covering the song a pointless excercise.

Now let me tell what I don’t like about this:

• The way it actually came out.

Sorry. Maybe I’m just being a cranky old man, but holy crap, did this song not need deathcore vocals. And I say that as someone who actually likes Suicide Silence.

Anyways, here’s the song. I look forward to the bitchfest that will inevitably take place in our comments section.

-AR

Not that we had any doubt Baroness’ Blue Record would have a strong debut, but it’s always nice to see the proof. And Skeletonwitch’s ripping new record Breathing the Fire had a great debut too; I’m elated to see the band sell as many records first week as they did. Elsewhere it was the usual radio rock / alt-metal suspects dominating the charts. Click through to see chart positions and sales figures.

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