Alice in Chains

New singer William DuVall isn't some jerk Alice in Chains scooped off the streets. Like a lot of veteran grunge dudes, his roots lie in the hardcore scene. So yeah, the cofounder of the band Neon Christ has cred. Unfortunately, DuVall had to follow one of modern rock's great frontmen, Layne Staley. Black Gives Way to Blue isn't bad at all; tracks like "Check My Brain" and "Lesson Learned" even sound like old school AiC. It's just that everything here sounds a bit light when compared to a masterpiece like Dirt.

In the Nineties, Alice in Chains went multiplatinum on a grunge-metal sound that was like
the soundtrack to singer Layne Staley's heroin addiction, which killed him in 2002. On the
band's first album in 14 years, sludgy guitars are back, and they're coupled with vocals by
guitarist Jerry Cantrell and new addition William DuVall, each of whom approximates
Staley's tortured-zombie crooning. The hard-charging "Check My Brain" is as hoo... More >