Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue Virgin Records Release date: September 29, 2009
If you’re wondering how the surviving members of Alice in Chains approached Black Gives Way to Blue, their first album since 1995‘s self-titled, look no further than the chorus in lead track “All Secrets Known” - “There’s no going back to the place we started from.”
No, when your career peak is an album that dealt with your lead singer’s heroin addiction, and everything that follows amounts to a sad waiting game against an inevitable death, the smart decision is to move forward. Which is what Alice in Chains does on Black Gives Way to Blue, and it’s also why the album sounds more like a Jerry Cantrell solo record than an Alice in Chains one. That’s obviously good news for fans of Cantrell’s Degradation Trip (count me among them, although it’s a shame both the one and two disc versions managed to have the same amount of filler) - Black Gives Way to Blue is at times the follow-up to that album as well as occasionally being a rehash of it (see “Lesson Learned”).
Essentially, this is what you’d expect it to be: an Alice in Chains album without Layne Staley. You won’t find many overt traces of the group that gave us “Love, Hate, Love,” “Them Bones,” or “Sludge Factory” - even at their most layered, Staley managed to keep the band raw and ugly, and really, there was no way the band was going to recapture that. But while the results on Black Gives Way to Blue are a little more mannered and there‘s no emotive moment that scrapes away the professional studio polish, it’s not to say it’s all sunshine and lollipops. “A Looking in View” is agreeably bleak - it’s easy to understand why that track was leaked to the public, as it does the best job at reminding people there was more to the band than just the dopesick frontman. While the chorus to first single “Check My Brain“ is radio big, it's also catchy as hell, heightened by a verse riff that curves in a deliberately wrong manner, like it’s right under your skin and trying to find a way out. “Acid Bubble” follows the same pattern as “Sickman,” in that it goes in one direction for the verse and moves in the complete opposite for the chorus. It’s not as jarring as Dirt‘s fourth track or as immediate as "A Looking in View" or "Check My Brain," but it still manages to find grace in its off kilter approach.
The band also gives a handful of well done nods to its acoustic EPs. In particular, “When the Sun Rose Again” manages to recapture the gritty, earthy vibe of Sap and stands as the non-loud highlight of the album. As opposed to the second half of Jar of Flies, here the band’s reach never exceeds its grasp, so while the title track gets a little too melodramatic, it’s never overwrought (and given the subject matter - Staley - I’ll give Cantrell a pass for wearing his heart on his sleeve).
If Black Gives Way to Blue is lacking anything, it’s a strong presence from new singer William DuVall. Apart from a couple of songs where he gets center stage, Black Gives Way to Blue is mostly DuVall and Cantrell harmonizing. I suppose they picked him because he blended in well, but I could’ve done with more tracks like “Last of My Kind” where you can immediately tell what he brings to the band. One can only hope that the next album does just that. In the meantime, this isn’t so much a welcome return as it is a welcome rebirth. Recommended.
- John Pegoraro
_________________ I'm never gonna work another day in my life
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