Categories : Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 2.5 / 5 Reviewer: Trent McMartin |
I feel for these guys, I really do. Handcuffed for years by one member’s horrible addictions. Then haunted by a memory. All they ever really wanted was to create and play music. But I’ve been dreading this day ever since Alice in Chains decided to reunite without, of course, deceased singer and lost cause Layne Staley. But here it is, a brand new album. Well, new meaning something amusingly retro in Black Gives Way to Blue. The guitars are heavy, the lyrics bleak, and the pace hypnotizing. Cuts like ‘A Looking in View,’ ‘Check My Brain,’ and ‘Your Decision’ sound like they could have been recorded in 1996. And it wouldn’t be AiC without a brooding ballad, this coming in the form of the title track, a Staley tribute, featuring Elton John on piano. A nice mournful tune, if a tad on the bland side.
But still, no Layne Staley essentially means no true AiC. Anything else is just a Cantrell solo project. Cantrell has always been the group’s musical leader – he wrote most the songs and is still a great guitar player. But Staley, like it or not, was the band’s aesthetic focal point. The singer, sadly, resembled something more out of a George Romero zombie film rather than a typical rock and roll star. It wasn’t a matter of how, but when Staley would check out. And unfortunately, it was that brooding junkie vibe that made AiC so unique. That and the voice. Even by their self-titled 1995 release, where his voice occasionally sounded weathered and shot, Staley could still belt out lyrics with a raw power that would even rival the chops of fellow Seattlelite scenester and reigning rock vocal king Chris Cornell. And on Black Gives Way to Blue, new addition William DuVall can’t pick up the slack no matter how much Jerry Cantrell offers himself up as a safety net. Cantrell has never been a great lead singer; his vocal talent lies more in harmonization. And it’s that lack of quality vocal content, coupled with a deficiency of memorable hooks, that makes Alice in Chain’s first album in 14 years a mild failure.
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