RIYL: Days of the New, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots
Fans of the metal and grunge scene rejoiced in September 2008 when seemingly out of nowhere it was announced that one of the most revered 90’s groups, Alice in Chains, was recording a new album. There was one obvious caveat. Layne Staley, the bands original lead singer, tragically passed away in 2002 from an overdose of heroin and cocaine after years of drug abuse. Staley’s legendary and time-tested vocals meant big shoes to fill for William DuVall, the new lead singer, but 2009’s “Black Gives Way to Blue” showed DuVall had a serious vocal range and was capable of holding his own with Chains’ famed guitarist Jerry Cantrell.
Now hot on the tail of their last effort comes the newly released “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” (TDPDH for short), a 12 track LP that has left fans somewhat polarized. It’s a solid album, but its difficult to resist comparing AIC’s latest efforts to their stellar earlier work. There’s lots pleasure to be found in the sound of Cantrell’s crunchy distorted guitar riffs and DuVall’s impressive Staley-esque vocals on early tracks like ‘Hollow’ and ‘Pretty Done’, but they mostly fail to stick in the head for very long afterwards. ‘Stone’ is a stronger tune, melding a heavy bass riff with an onslaught of guitar stabs to create a dirty and propulsive jam.
‘Voices’ tries out a more acoustic sound reminiscent of the AIC staple ‘No Excuses’, but lyrically fails to make much noise as DuVall reveals “I want more than I need/ I don’t know what is real.” Enlightening.
Regrettably, things go downhill fast on TDPDH. ‘Lab Monkey’ is a mostly unnecessary grungy mess and ‘Low Ceiling’ feels incredibly formulaic. All of the elements are present on TDPDH to make for a great grunge rock album, but there’s not much innovation to be found, and over 12 tracks that becomes a big problem. Verse reliably morphs into chorus but it’s hard to get excited about any of the later tracks. ‘Hung on a Hook’ has an interesting guitar intro but most listeners probably won’t have the attention span to make it the entire 5 minutes. While name recognition alone will probably get it onto a lot of iPods, to those who know how good Alice in Chains can be, TDPDH is a bit of a bust.
—————————
For More Information Visit:
—————————
http://www.aliceinchains.com
