While the concerts as opening act for Kiss in 1996 and the couple of songs recorded for the "Music Bank" Box Set in 1998 implied that the band remained together, the truth is that the historical "Unplugged" was the last effort and farewell as a band of Alice in Chains, at least with Layne Staley in vocals. Cantrell was quite aware that the Alice had disbanded and proof of that are his solo albums "Boggy Depot" on 1998 and “Degradation Trip"on 2002.
Layne was getting worse and it seemed irreversible and, although "Boggy Depot" was only an attempt to remain active, the next Cantrell´s solo attempt would definitely establish the final farewell for Alice in Chains (For more information, please read “Degradation Trip” review). However, Cantrell never recognized this in public. In an interview given to Jon Wiederhorn on March 19th 2002, Jerry stated about the Alice in Chains continuity: “I never say die, man. It’s not even anywhere near that. I’ve been working on my own thing for quite some time and I plan on continuing for many years. At the same time, who knows what will happen? We’re all still around, so it’s possible we could all do something someday, and I fully hope someday we will. It’s just not gonna happen soon.” Two weeks later, on April 5th 2002, Layne Staley died at his condo in the U-District in Seattle.
The impact was tremendous and shocking for all the fans, music-related people and of course for the remaining band members. Jerry by that time was already on the road promoting "Degradation Trip" although it had not been officially released yet, and many thought he would cancel the first leg of the tour, but the preferred mitigate the pain on stage.
Alice in Chains
Black Gives Way to blue
Black Gives Way to Blue is a symbolic album. It represents the victory of its members to the dark battles fought during the 90´s. It´s an album about survival that manages to overlap the worst of personal tragedies for which the band has gone through; Layne Staley's departure, the soul of Alice in Chains. Black Gives Way to Blue is the comeback, after 14 years, of the acclaimed band with a new member doing the voices, but it´s not about the new member, but the remaining 3, showing us the way, again, to the true rock.
In that tour, Jerry Cantrell had a support band because Mike Bordin and Robert Trujillo, who were the musicians who recorded DT, had prior commitments and couldn´t play with Cantrell. That support band was "Comes with the Fall" and had the singer-guitarist William DuVall, who will be an important piece in the rest of this story. "Comes with the Fall" had moved from Atlanta to Los Angeles in 2000 where they started to make a series of shows and it was in a club called "Dragon Fly" when he first met Jerry Cantrell. Cantrell introduced himself and told them he was a big fan of them.
William DuVall about it: “I moved here with comes with the fall in 2000 and Jerry was really into us. From there we sparked a friendship and a mutual admiration and then in 2001 he was finishing up his degradation trip album and he needed a band to help him out on the road, so for all of 2001 my band opened the show and did double duty backing him on his own material, and that was solid touring. When I say 2001 and 2002, I mean all of it, and you get to know somebody. We were friends when Layne was living, he passed while we were on the road”
From Layne´s passing, speculation about the band cleared for obvious reasons and Cantrell buried any chance of a reunion under the Alice in Chains name. “That Chapter closed when Layne died” would say by that time, the guitarist and songwriter.
Uncertainty took hold of the former Alice in Chains members. Mike Inez would work with Heart on “Alive in Seattle” (2003) and “Jupiter´s Darling (2004) albums. After Degradation Trip, Cantrell ended his relationship with Roadrunner and set about spending time with the cover band "Camp Freddy" that included members from Jane's Addiction (Dave Navarro), Guns' n Roses (Matt Sorum), Red Hot Chili Peppers (Chad Smith) and The Cult (Billy Duffy). Having been part of this band led Cantrell to talk to Duffy to form a covers supergroup called "Cardboard Vampyres" which included besides Duffy, Chris Wyse from The Cult also, John Corabi, ex-Motley Crue and John Howser.
In 2007, during the tour with Velvet Revolver, the magic again started to appear once again and the band began writing new material, again, not knowing where it would to take them.
Six months later they booked the studio 606, owned by a good friend of the band, the legendary Nirvana drummer and current Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl. Grohl himself offered Cantrell his studio and also, someone that would be crucial for the band´s return: “Man you gotta come work at the studio and use Nick-you guys would be great together”. That was how the band hired Nick Raskulineckz as a producer for the recording of these new songs that they didn´t even know if they would have a final destination as an album because they didn´t have a record deal, nor deadline and no one to report back anything.
Nick Raskulineckz had worked with some really important bands such as Foo Fighters, Rush, Deftones, Stone Sour but still working as a producer for Alice in Chains would totally intimidate him at first, since he had always been a big fan of the band. Nick Raskulineckz about it: “To be honest, at first I was a Little hesitant, because i grew up listening to Alice in Chains, and how can there be alice in chains, without layne staley? But my curiosity got the best of me, and I went over to the studio where they´d been cutting demos and met the guys. We all hung out outside for a couple of hours and talked, breaking the ice. Then they took me in the studio and played me a track (Check my brain). When I Heard those guitars and those guys started singing , that was it- I was in. I looked at jerry and said: I don´t need to hear anything else. I was just blown away by how they´d kept the original sound intact with Will´s voice. I couldn´t believe it, man- I was floored”
By September 2008, website blabbermouth.net surprised the music world by reporting that Alice in Chains would start recording their first album in 14 years in October of the same year. The recording and mixing of the album took almost a whole year. The band got a new record deal through Virgin Records which would ensure global distribution of the album. There were high expectations to know every aspect of the new musical adventure; album cover, number of songs, song titles, album name etc. Some of this anxiety could be calmed in June 2009 when the album name was finally revealed; It would be called "Black Gives Way to Blue" and the release date would take place on September 29th 2009.
In June also, Alice in Chains released on its official website, the new 7 minutes long song called "A Looking in view" for free download and it was a complete madness. Rock radio stations wouldn´t stop of playing it and this was extremely weird, since the song was not edited, it was a 7 minute long song and for the current standards of the radio stations, this new song was virtually out of their scope. And yet, it was being requested and played all day. Alice in Chains were back. There was no doubt at all.
The band´s teasers strategy was quite successful as each passing week, they put a video of them working in the studio. They also sent the album cover to all people who were in the band´s official newsletter. Crowning the strategy, they released the first official single from the album called “Check my Brain” and announce that the title track is dedicated to Layne Staley and in this one, Elton John, an artist admired by Layne since he was a child and for the rest of the band also, plays the piano parts. It was too much positive information for fans. We just had to wait for the release date and listen the entire album.
On September 29th the album Black Gives Way to Blue is released worldwide. The experience of listening to the band of our lives once again is just around the corner.
The álbum starts with “All Secrets known”, a Huge song. It´s a slow and s dragged song, with a wide guitars layer that seems to lead to a whirlwind of sensations. The first thing that stands out is that Cantrell takes the position of the lead singer, while DuVall does the vocal harmonies game, but the in the background. The lead vocals on this song are slow and melodic. Cantrell doesn´t come close to Staley in his vocal range, but that's a story, because for this one is not really necessary. It's a song that generates an impressive atmosphere. The lyrics have a high emotional charge and serve to make the statement for this Alice in Chains era (Hope, / A new beginning / Time, / Time to start living / Like just before we died / There´s no going back / to the place / We started from). A simply overwhelming beginning.
Much more like in the style of Cantrell's Degradation Trip is what we find in "Lesson Learned". A very good rock song that has Cantrell as lead singer again, although DuVall does some vocal parts to increase the emphasis of the certain parts of the song. The lyrics are about someone who is in the bottoming point in his life and at that point sees a glimmer of light that allows him to exit (Feeling like you never could / Been the disconnected frying / Hit the vein & struck a nerve /Seeing through a self that's blinding / You know when you find it / In your darkest hour, you strike gold /A thought clicks, not the be-all end-all / Just another lesson learned...). A correct song.
“Take her out” is maybe the weakest song on Black Gives way to blue in musical terms. Not so in lyrics. In terms of the music, it lacks of the more complex sound that Alice in Chains use to permeate to the songs. As for the music, it lacks the more complex sound that Alice in Chains used to impregnate to the songs. The main riff is too basic in my opinion for a creative genius like Cantrell. Regarding the lyrics, I think Cantrell speaks of Alice rebirth with this new incarnation. (Here I am again / I feel time is dragging on / Aren't you getting tired of me? / Whinging overdrawn / Faceless, blind / Want to take her out again / She's not just mine / Want to take her out again). Una canción correcta para una banda de rock cualquiera, no para Alice in Chains.
"Private Hell" is perhaps the most similar song to Alice in Chains 1992-93 era. I personally think it has some resemblance to the main riffs of "Down in a Hole". It´s a song about losing a love, as Cantrell usually does in each of the albums he´s done (Promises abound / You rarely find it to begin / Maybe I'm afraid / To let you all the way in / Lately I'm beside myself / Pretending, unconcerned / Standing on a corner / Where I threw you on a turn) A well-developed song from beginning to end with the right nuances to form part of the classic Alice in Chains catalog.
Finally we come across to the most emotional song on the album. "Black Gives Way to Blue" is a song written by Jerry Cantrell for his friend and brother, Layne Staley. Raskulinecz about this song: “It´s really Jerry saying goodbye to Layne, and that moment was very powerful, very emotional.
Jerry was on the mic singing about his guy, and it brought us all to tears-five grown men crying. It´s just one vocal track, and Jerry´s never let himself be as vulnerable as he did on that song. “The song itself was so strong for Cantrell that even caused him physical pain. In words of Jerry Cantrell: “It´s a heavy tune man , I´m really addressing it in a frank way-It´s cool now but it wasn´t cool then . When we recorded it it was hard to fucking sing that shit and hold it together. I think there was a real chunk of undigested grief and luckily everybody reacted to it that way for our fucking friend. I couldn´t leave my house for three weeks, I had mystery migraines, I was in so much pain, I was getting cat scans, I thought I had meningitis. I thought I was going to fucking die, I thought I had a brain tumour. It took a couple of months to get better. It was all still locked inside.”
Cantrell holding a T-shirt with the image of Layne during a concert in Charlotte on April 27th 2002, just days after of Layne´s passing
Nothing too important or relevant for a creative genius like Cantrell. And from Sean Kinney we didn´t know anything until early 2005, when following the devastating Tsunami happened in South East Asia, he had the idea of organizing a charity event to go to the aid of victims of the tragedy. But for what would this event be attractive? Nothing more and nothing less than see once again Alice in Chains reunited and playing together after 9 years!
The event would feature Krist Novoselic from Nirvana, Ann and Nancy Wilson from Heart, Supersuckers, Sir Mix-a-Lot, The Children of Revolution and some others. But the night of February 18th 2005 would be destined to the main act, Alice in Chains, who would perform with different singers in a set divided into 2 parts; acoustic and electric. Jerry Cantrell refers to the feeling of playing together as a band again after so long: “Mike and Sean and I finally had the conversation that we´d been putting off since Layne died. After the first day (of rehearsals), we could feel how it used to feel. It just took us a long time to learn to come to grips without losing Layne. Not only did we lose our partner but, more importantly, we lost our friend and our brother. It took a long time for that conversation to even be ok to have”
The band was extremely cautious about a definitive reunion and took care to emphasize that everything that was happening to them, was really satisfying mainly due the reception of the fans but it wasn´t time to anticipate anything. They were just enjoying and no one really knew where this new status would take them.
The next move would take place on March 10th 2006 at the Trump Taj Maha City in Atlantic City, in a tribute to the band Heart called "Decades Rock Live, Heart & friends" made and broadcasted by VH1. This would be the first DuVall presentation as the band leads vocals, though he had not been ratified yet as an official member. The band played a 5 songs set, and 2 of them were performed by Phil Anselmo, causing even more confusion over who would become the singer of the band if they decided to continue. Most of the fans thought Patrick Lachman would be the man because he had performed many songs in the first reunion concert and had a similar tone to Layne in some of them. After this performance with Anselmo on vocals and due to his superstar status, another faction regarded him as another good card to be the new singer. And there was DuVall in this triad, which was backed by the tour with Cantrell and the friendship that bonded them. However, Cantrell was emphatic in stating that they would continue rotating singers for the tour which was scheduled for this presentation with Heart. The band felt that if they gave emphasis to a particular singer on that tour, all eyes would be focused on Layne´s replacement, instead of thinking that particular tour was made in honor of him.
It was in tour that DuVall consolidated as the new singer of the band. Jerry Cantrell about it: “Being here today is empowering. I never dreamt of putting Alice back together. I said I would never perform under that name again but then Will join us on stage and it seemed right. William DuVall on its inclusion and role in the band: “In the end all you can do is be yourself and rely on your own instincts. Layne was himself and I don´t need to be him. No one wants to sully any legacy or disrespect Layne. I love Layne. I love his work. The only way to honour the past and the present is to do your thing but also do it in a way that hopefully is a bit more life-affirming instead of revisiting the death-trip. It´s about redemption and rebirth. It´s about owning it in my own way, or it would be a disservice to me, the people who care about this band, and to Layne”
"A Looking in View" is a very heavy song with an oppressive sound that hardly allows you to breathe. The drum work seems a bit odd in this one; I personally think it has too many elements that show a distance from the classic drumming Sean Kinney does. One feature that Alice in Chains catalog has always had is that despite being a heavy band, every song always had a great sense of melody. I think this song lacks precisely that, a sense of melody that makes it feel part of the Alice in Chains catalog. Vocal harmonies of Cantrell-DuVall duo are excellent giving the classic Alice in Chains spooky touch. I definitely think the lyrics are dedicated to Layne Staley and his last days.
(Hear footsteps creak the floor / The shadows give away / Someone outside the door / Won´t let’em in / It's why you never tell me whatever´s on your mind). An excessively long song in my opinion, could have been improved if it were a little shorter.
The song has an additional emotional component, because the piano parts were played by Elton John, an artist who inspired both, Jerry and Layne. Cantrell sent him a tape of the song plus a note explaining the significance of the song and asking if he would consider adding a few piano parts to the song. A week later the studio manager of Elton John called Cantrell and told him that Elton wanted to talk to him. Elton John told him he was moved by the song and he was a fan of Alice and Layne and he would do it gladly.
The final result was a simple song, but very emotional from start to end. The vocals are on Cantrell almost entirely. DuVall appears in the second verse adding an even more emotional component. The lyrics speak of the feelings of moved Cantrell, to his brother who makes the trip from the black of this earth to the blue of heaven (I don't wanna feel no more / It's easier to keep falling / Imitations are pale /Emptiness all tomorrows haunted by your ghost /Lay down black gives way to blue). A perfect close.
Black Gives Way to Blue has a different, more modern sound to its predecessors, more in line with Cantrell's solo career than the previous Alice in Chains catalog. But one way or another, it captures the essence of the 90´s icon band . I´ve always compared Black Gives Way to Blue with, for instance, Roger Waters and David Gilmour solo albums. You know for sure they are not like the golden era of Pink Floyd, but you realize immediately that they are part of the Pink Floyd sound one way or another. Here is exactly the same, you listen and recognize the album Alice in Chains trademark, even if this album doesn´t approach to the 90´s magic. But I guess that is what is music about, as well as life itself, you go through changes, but without losing the essence that makes us.
Por: Schulz
Singers who had the privilege of performing at the Alice in Chains reunion were Pat Lachman from Damageplan, who made the whole acoustic set on vocals with Chris de Garmo and Scottie Olsen, and It ain´t like that on the electric set. Ann Wilson from Heart sang Brother. Would? and Angry Chair and would be performed by Wes Scantlin from Puddle of Mud and the big surprise of the night would come when Them Bones and Man in the box were played, both were sang by Maynard James Keenan from Tool and A Perfect Circle.
The event was a tremendous success and raised more than $ 100,000, but beyond the amount, the most important was that this date became a landmark and from the Premier Club show, the return of the band began to pave. Layne could not be out of the thoughts of those who were aware of this reunion, especially the band members. Jerry Cantrell:“It felt good to be up there, but it was tremendously sad that Layne wasn´t there as well. We had feelings of grief and loss. You feel the whole range of emotions, but that´s part of the process of losing something, and that´s not unique to us”
"Check My Brain" has a catchy riff that seems to have effects, but nevertheless it only has Cantrell´s mastery that raises and lowers the strings with his fingers to produce the sound. It´s the first single and as such has all the structure to access massive radio playlists. In this song Cantrell gives a little more space to DuVall, we heard him much more than the first song, much more in the same Cantrell´s level. The lyrics are not strong enough in my opinion, which talk about Cantrell´s feelings about moving from Seattle to Los Angeles, California. (And so I found myself in the sun, oh yeah…/ A hell of a place to end a run, oh yeah…/ California, I´m fine/ Somebody check my brain / California´s alright / Somebody Check my Brain / Tears that filled my bong / Years expended gone). A good mainstream rock song.
The beginning riffs of "Last of my kind" are really promising. They have a heavy, cyclical and enveloping structure. It´s the first song that DuVall takes over the vocals on property. It is also the first time that he appears in the credits of an Alice in Chains song. The vocal performance is outstanding from start to end, yet there is something in the chorus riffs that always make me remember more the song structure of a conventional heavy band than classic sound of Alice in Chains catalog. The lyrics are written by Duvall and may have different interpretations, but the predominant concept is survival and ethical integrity in front of a group that represents the opposite; religious groups, politicians, etc (Trapped in the cold outside /There ain't there no shelter /And they wanna force my hand / Until I take what I want /And break all the lies that they feed / the fuckin' liars…/ Smash all the temples, and /Crawl through the rubble, and / Cry to the fallen/ I'm the last of my kind still standing / I'm alone)
The beginning of "Your Decision" has a strong similarity to "Angel Eyes" from Degradation Trip in musical terms. It´s an acoustic ballad with cellos that sends us back somehow to Jar of Flies times. I don´t know if the lyrics are related to Layne or are just self-referential, since all of them, one form or another, were involved in addictions issues. (Time to change has come and gone / Watched your fears become your god / It's your decisión / No one plans to take the path that brings you lower /And here you stand before us all and say it's over /It's over). A friendly song, which would take them off even more on the radio playlists.
The first big surprise of the album comes with "When the sun rose again" The percussion bongos or tables are handled by Chris Armstrong that gives the surreal touch to the atmosphere of the song. Musically it shows some dissociation in certain vocal and music parts that contribute to the feeling of the disturbing peace of the song. The lyrics have as its main theme the choices everyone makes in life (Pray / squeal when you're caught / Cry / it's not my fault / It seems you prophesized, all of this would end / Were you burned away, When the sun rose again) A GREAT song that gives chills.
"Acid Bubble" has an awesome arrangement. It starts dragged and slow with a Cantrell´s guitar chord that shines and shows that his songwriting skills are outstanding, and what's even better, are intact. The song develops with a great sense of melody, with DuVall and Cantrell harmonizing perfectly. It has a wonderful progression that closes in a riff that seems to lead us to madness ... then back to the dense calm. The lyrics seem to refer to a love that has ended with one part more damaged than the other one (You tried to kill me off / Surprised I remain / A scale tips, impossible / Afraid of my own name / And I always paid attention to all the lines you crossed /Forgive this imperfection it shows, and know / I am the child that lives and cries in a corner / Dies in a corner ) It´s almost a 7 minutes long song, but unlike "A looking in view" it seems to be really short. Perhaps the best song on the new album.