And this time... This is what happens when the devil leaves dinosaurs in the studio...
On May 28, 2013, "Alice In Chains" released their fifth studio album "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here".
This is the band's second studio album which was released after the death of the legendary Layne Staley, and the second to include singer William DuVall as the band's fourth member.
The album comes four years after its predecessor "Black Gives Way to Blue" which was released in 2009.
If on the previous album Jerry Cantrell took the lead vocals rule, with William serving as co-pilot, on this album Jerry allows himself to let go a little more, giving William more space to express in a way that makes this album sound more complete and cohesive than its predecessor. There is a sense that "Alice" is slowly breaking free from the "Chains" associated with Layne's death and is beginning to function as a solid group whose parts complement each other. The band sounds more confident here, and more goal-oriented.
There are a few songs on this album that are definitely approaching the level of the good old Alice. "Hollow" which opens the album and was released as the first single, whose mesmerizing riff was written by Jerry Cantrell during the "warm-up" for the show that sealed the tour of the previous album.
The song "Stone" whose riff Jerry Cantrell wrote during recovery from his shoulder injury. In the absence of the ability to play the recorded himself humming the riff to the phone, and the result was nothing but amazing, as the riff entered the list of the 20 greatest riffs of the decade.
The song "Voices" is the first song written for the album, even before Jerry's injury. The theme song whose arppagio guitar intro takes us directly back to "Love, Hate, Love" from the debut album "Facelift".
And the song "Scalpel" sounds like an outtake from the acoustic album "Jar OF Flies", and more and more good and strong songs !!!
To be honest, towards the end of the album it seems that "Alice" is starting to lose some height with songs like "Phantom Limb" and “Hung on a Hook,” but even in these cases, it's exactly how we would like to hear one of the grunge "dinosaurs" of the 1990s 20 years later.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music