MetalSucks

When Vince and I saw Alice in Chains last month, there was a lot of hub-bub in the crowd ’cause Scott Ian and his wife, Pearl “Meatloaf’s Daughter” Aday, were very visibly sitting in the VIP section of the balcony. But seeing Scott Ian at a New York metal show isn’t really that unusual, so I didn’t think much of it at the time.

As it turns out, though, Ian and AIC’s Jerry Cantrell are, indeed, friends – and now business partners. So says a press release:

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Are you sick of hearing about the new Alice in Chains album, Black Gives Way to Blue, yet? I know we – and pretty much every other metal and heavy rock media outlet – have been talking about it non-stop, but that’s because it’s a great record, and very likely marks the comeback of the decade. (Although Christian Hoard at Rolling Stone only gave it 2 1/2 stars out of a possible five. Three cheers for Rolling Stone once again going out of its way to prove its irrelevance to anyone other than yuppies, old men who are nostalgic for a heyday that never really existed the way they say it did, and bored people in waiting rooms.)

Here’s the band performing the new track “Your Decision” on Jimmy Kimmel last night. It’s a beautiful performance of one my favorite songs on the album. It’s hard not to interpet the lyrics – to this or most of the other songs on Blue – as being about Layne Staley, but regardless of whatever Jerry Cantrell and the rest of the band intended, it’s an excellent tune.

Black Gives Way to Blue is out now, and is apparently selling very well, at least by current standards. That makes me very, very happy.

-AR

This video is from ‘94, but still… I’d never seen it before and found it, well, not funny, but, uh, interesting? Let’s say interesting.

I guess Cantrell and company weren’t too offended, though, ’cause in 2006, they performed with Hetfield:

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I think that William DuVall is ready for his close-up. Black Gives Way to Blue kills, and proves that Alice in Chains have done what even the most cynical of us (namely, me) thought was impossible: this band can carry on without Layne Staley. And, yes, Jerry Cantrell deserves a BJ or twelve for that fact, but this would be just a glorified make-over for Cantrell’s solo band if DuVall wasn’t a killer front man.

So. MetalSucks Maniac Amanda Dobbs has tipped us off to the fact that DuVall has made a list of ten songs that “blow him away” for AOL. And while there’s a goodly amount of rock on the list, it’s probably not what you expect. I don’t wanna spoil it here, but… the most recent song on the list was recorded in 1971. So if you were hoping for some metal… stop.

But they’re all great songs, and give some real insight into where DuVall is coming from. Check out the list here.

-AR

The first words you hear on Facelift are “Scary’s on the wall/ Scary’s on his way.” The first words you hear on Dirt are “I believe them bones are me/Some say we’re born into the grave.”

The first words you’ll hear on Black Gives Way to Blue are “Hope, a new beginning/Time, time to start living.”

I’m saying this band has had a major shift in life-philosophy.

Here’s an album sampler. It’s a too-brief taste of what the band has in store for you when the record is released on September 29.

After the jump, check out Jerry Cantrell doing an acoustic performance of the title track, which is the last song on the album. I’d urge you to pay attention to the lyrics if you can. And don’t forget that Elton John plays piano on the studio version of the song.

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I had kind of a stunning realization last night as I watched Alice in Chains blow the roof off Irving Plaza/The Fillmore/whatever the fuck it’s called now. It was during the second song of the band’s ninety minute set, “Again.” (The show opener was “Rain When I Die,” in case you’re curious.) New vocalist William DuVall (well at this point he’s not really new anymore, but I guess he’s new-ish) didn’t just sing the phrase “Again and again and again” – he belted it, jumping up onto the monitors to give himself just a little extra boost in the rockstar god department. Then, as it came time for him to grunt and signal the start of the “Doo-doo, doo-doo” sing-along section (and sing along the crowd did), DuVall lept off the monitor and started pumping his fist in the air, prompting the audience to do the same. As he finally turned to face drummer Sean Kinney, Kinney started grinning; and then the grin spread across the stage like an infectious disease, and by the end of the song, guitarist Jerry Cantrell and bassist Mike Inez were smiling, too.

And that’s when it hit me. It was kind of a morbid epiphany, especially for someone who held deceased vocalist Layne Staley in as high regard as I did, but it was an important epiphany for a fan who hopes to follow this band into their future. Here it is:

Layne Staley did not want to be with us here tonight.

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This is Alice in Chains performing “A Looking in View” live in Detroit last week. Note that not only does the band sound great, but that William DuVall and Jerry Cantrell both sound more or less the way they do on the recording of the track. In other words: they can actually sing. Without autotune. Amazing, right?

And the moral of the story is: if you can’t do it live, don’t do it on record. Because I’ll just make fun of you later. I’m talking to you, Brandon Saller. Get it together.

If you haven’t already read Vince’s track-by-track breakdown of the new AIC album, Black Gives Way to Blue, well, you should really check it out now.

-AR

[via Blabbermouth]

So there’s this new Alice in Chains song, and this morning I wrote and posted this whole long critique, and now shitty computer issue mean it’s gone forever, and I’m way too lazy to re-write it all. So here are the highlights of that now-departed piece:

• No one will ever be able to replace Layne Staley, but William DuVall does a good job and his harmonies Jerry Cantrell are great.
• The band brought the heavy, which makes me happy.
• At seven-plus minutes, I think it’s too long, especially since it’s kind of redundant.
• I’m excited to hear the whole record.
• Fuck Godsmack.
• Download the whole song for free here.
• Weigh in with your thoughts below.

-AR

So Ozzy is apparently gonna make another record… and it seems like just yesterday that I listened to Black Rain once and decided I never needed to listen to it again. Since the Oz Man hasn’t really recorded anything worth anyone’s time since 1991’s No More Tears, I thought I’d offer my expertise (read: complete fucking arrogance) and make some suggestions to ensure that this new album doesn’t make me long for the day when I read the headline that Jack Osbourne finally offed his entire family.

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