Jerry Cantrell – I Want Blood – Album Review

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Jerry Cantrell – Brighten – Album Review

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Alice In Chains – The Olympia – Live Review – 21/05/19

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2019/05/21/alice-in-chains-the-olympia-live-review-21-05-19/?fbclid=IwAR1qAqCF66rmvY5YAPCPHFuleAr7et8oprVHhNOziEu1fxGjcMV9alrqPgc

Alice In Chains – Jar of Flies

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2019/03/22/alice-in-chains-jar-of-flies/

Alice in Chains – Rainier Fog – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/08/28/alice-in-chains-rainier-fog-album-review/

Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue

Alice In Chains' first album in 14 years came out in 2009.  With Layne Staley having passed, it seemed heresy to hire a replacement, but they did in the shape of William DuVall.  However on listening to opening track All Secrets Known, any fears seemed unfounded.  Jerry Cantrell's slow heavy riffs dominate, with his and DuVall's voices combining superbly on some twisted harmonies.  Second track Check My Brain has a seriously catchy, yet heavy riff and a killer chorus, up there with vintage AIC.

Such an opening is hard to sustain, and they don't quite manage it.  There isn't much wrong with heavy riffing tracks like Last of My Kind, A Looking In View and Acid Bubble.  Elsewhere they trot out a few moody ballads such as Your Decision, When The Sun Rose Again and the title track.  Again, nothing wrong with these but they aren't especially distinctive.  Later tracks Lesson Learned and Take Her Out growl along very agreeably over heavy guitars.  But overall, for those who badly missed Alice In Chains in 2009, this album recreated their sound perfectly.

Album Review: Alice In Chains | The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here

Review for www.meg.ie

http://www.meg.ie/alice-in-chains-the-devil-put-dinosaurs-here/

Album Review: Alice In Chains

In 1995, Alice In Chains had replaced Mike Starr with Mike Inez on bass.  Their music, never the sunniest to begin with, had taken on a darker hue as signposted by the artwork.  Grind opens the album with Jerry Cantrell's 'grinding' guitar riff as Layne Staley sings "in the darkest hole you'd be well-advised not to plan my funeral before the body dies".  These guys make an ugly, ugly sound, and the grimness doesn't let up much across 12 songs.

Foreboding songs like Brush Away and Sludge Factory do little to dispel the gloom, while even the pretty guitar strum of Heaven Beside You sees Cantrell and Staley's decaying harmonies tell of "heaven beside you and hell within".  Shame In You sees a tiny speck of brightness creep into proceedings, though Staley is "concentrating on dying", over soaring guitars.

We finish with Over Now, a song not unlike Nirvana's quieter moments, with a pretty melody and Cantrell's fancy guitar work.  But it was to prove to be Staley's final album with the band.