Alice in Chains

A long time ago at an Air Force base far, far away, the wife and I used to watch MTV. This was back in the day when the "M" in MTV stood for "music," and they used to show music videos. Every Saturday night we'd watch The Headbanger's Ball. We were young, just starting our lives together, didn't have a whole lot of money, so on Saturday nights we'd have nothing better to do than watch heavy metal videos. Back then, most of the heavy metal acts were of the "hair band" variety like Poison, Cinderella, Ratt, Dokken, Winger, Warrant, etc. Their music pretty much sounded the same, which is to say, lame. But one particular Saturday night in 1990 we saw a new band from Seattle. Their sound was different, as was their look. No hair spray or make-up for these guys - they were real. The band - Alice in Chains. The song was "Man in the Box." There was just something about having your eyes sewn shut that set them apart from everyone else and made you want more of the same. These guys were heavy, so heavy that I thought they were the demon spawn of Black Sabbath [not a bad thing, by the way]. The singer [Layne Staley] was this skinny little dude who sounded like he was this big fat sweaty guy who could put a lot of power into his vocals. The guitar player [Jerry Cantrell] was this dude from Oklahoma with long blonde hair, who played de-tuned G&L Rampage guitars [even the name of his guitar sounded cool]. This guy played skullcrushing chords like Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi, tasteful solos, used talk-box and wah-wah, and never tried to break the notes-per-second ethos of the day. He was like David Gilmour of Pink Floyd - when he played a solo, people paid attention. Jerry Cantrell was a triple threat. He wrote most of the songs, played excellent guitar, and was a damn fine harmony singer who took the occasional lead vocal.

Two years after Facelift [their debut] came Dirt, Alice in Chains' magnum opus. The themes of the album-drug addiction, loss, depression, regret, nihilism, hopelessness, come across as very real. The album has a thematic coherence that the singer is well and truly screwed, in a prison of his own making, and he knows it. You just knew these guys had been there, done that. And guess what - they had. Dirt generated three singles that got massive airplay - Down in a Hole, Rooster [a tribute to Jerry Cantrell's Vietnam-vet dad], and Would. I heard Would first because it was on the soundtrack to the movie Singles. That song was the hook that got me to want to follow Alice in Chains until the bitter end. Dirt can be very depressing, but serves as a warning - a sort of morality tale of "if you want to do heroin, look what it did to me." I read one review on Amazon.com that pretty much sums it up - "Each song has a terrific, intense riff, and one or two killer solos. These songs are instantly catchy and memorable. The songs combined the sludgy guitars and riffs of Black Sabbath, and the beauty and melody of the Beatles." A strange combination, but it's effective. It works!

In 1993 Alice in Chains confounded all expectations by following-up this sludgy, riff heavy album with an acoustic EP, Jar of Flies. The arrangements are lush, almost achingly beautiful. There is no heavy sledgehammer riffage to be found. Where Dirt has the subtlety of a piledriver, Jar of Flies derives it's power from Jerry Cantrell's undistorted guitar tones and more sparse arrangements. The themes expressed herein deal with acceptance the consequences of ones actions as told in Dirt, so Jar of Flies is a logical follow-up to Dirt. Such was the success of Dirt with the listening public, Jar of Flies debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts and spawned another single that received massive radio airplay, No Excuses. These records were quite the "one-two punch." They're that good. Put the two records on the same CD and you have an excellent combination of skullcrushing riffage with light and shade a la Led Zeppelin.

After Jar of Flies came a year of silence. We heard nothing from Alice in Chains. Rumors were rampant about Layne Staley's imminent demise due to drug abuse. Then in 1995 came the Alice in Chains CD. That's the one with the three-legged dog on the cover. This third CD had good songs like Heaven Beside You and Over Now, but it was a bit of a letdown for me. The letdown was not due to the songs, but to the album's production. It has no ambience to it, no spark. It feels like the life had been sucked out of the band and it's music. Alice in Chains was another #1 hit, but as fate would have it, it would be the last studio album by the band for fourteen years. In 1996 the band recorded a well-received Unplugged show for MTV. One hint of how things had been going for the band was a comment Layne Staley made about the Unplugged show being the best one they had played in three years, to which one of the bandmembers responded "Layne, it's the ONLY show we've played in three years." Two years later, the entire band would record just two more songs, Get Born Again and Died, for their Music Bank box set. These songs have the distinction of being the last Alice in Chains songs recorded with Layne Staley.

In 1998, Jerry Cantrell made a solo album, Boggy Depot, that was an Alice in Chains album in all but name. Most of the AIC elements are there - the AIC rhythm section of Sean Kinney and Mike Inez, heavy riffage, de-tuned sludgy guitars, and of course Jerry Cantrell's songs and voice. The only thing missing was Layne Staley, whose vices had forced him to become a recluse. The song Bargain Basement Howard Hughes, which appears on Jerry Cantrell's second solo effort Degradation Trip, is about Layne Staley. Such was Layne Staley's state of being that he wanted nothing to do with his own band. He didn't want to be seen what he had become, an addict on the downward spiral. To the band's credit, they never blamed their inactivity on Layne's condition, they always told interviewers that Layne's problems were a private matter that were nobody's business but his own. Sadly, on April 19, 2002, Layne Staley died as a result of a heroin-cocaine overdose [a "speedball"]. Jerry Cantrell dedicated Degradation Trip to his memory. Alice in Chains died with him. Or did it?

In 2005, Jerry Cantrell, Mike Inez and Sean Kinney regrouped as Alice in Chains with several different singers and played a benefit show for victims of the 2004 Christmas tsunami. The following year they toured with William DuVall as their new vocalist. William DuVall came from the band Comes with the Fall, which had played with Jerry Cantrell when he toured in support of Degradation Trip.

Fourteen years after their last studio release, Alice in Chains have put out a new album called Black Gives Way to Blue. I love this album. William DuVall does not try to ape Layne Staley. He does his own thing and harmonizes very well with Jerry Cantrell, as did Layne Staley. Black Gives Way to Blue has both the heavy elements of Dirt and the light-and-shade moments of Jar of Flies. It is a welcome addition to the Alice in Chains canon. The songs? My favorites so far are Acid Bubble, Last of My Kind, Your Decision, Check My Brain, and the title song. The title song is an homage to Layne Staley, and is a first for Alice in Chains - a song with a piano [played by none other than Elton John] as part of the arrangement. I read a recent review of a show Alice in Chains did in Seattle. As the first song of their encore, Jerry Cantrell came out alone, sat on a stool and started playing the song Black Gives Way to Blue. All through the song, the spotlight shone on an empty chair next to Jerry, a reminder of their missing friend.

Welcome back Alice - I hope it doesn't take another fourteen years to produce another record. This new one is a good one. I think somewhere Layne Staley must be smiling - at last.