It’s funny that one of the first lines on Alice in Chains’ first
album in 14 years claims, “There’s no going back to the place we
started from.” Because for the next 54 minutes, that’s precisely what
these ’90s Seattle rockers attempt to do on Black Gives Way to
Blue. The point is clear: After singer Layne Staley died of a drug
overdose in 2002, the band was inactive until recruiting Staley
sound-alike William DuVall to help pick up the pieces. And with
guitarist, singer and songwriter Jerry Cantrell stepping up, Black
Gives Way to Blue sounds like vintage Alice in Chains, right down
to the druggy murk that coats the album.
In other words, they’re going back exactly to the place they started
from. Which is a cool thing for fans of the band’s thick sludge of
grunge-metal guitar riffage and droning lyrics about death, drugs and
hell. Everyone else will have to sift through a set of tuneless songs
to get to the good stuff: Cantrell’s awesomely warped guitar on “Check
My Brain” and the title tune, a tribute to Staley featuring Elton John
on piano. — Michael Gallucci
This article appears in Oct 7-13, 2009.
