Alice In Chains have always walked a beautifully fine line between rock 'n' roll and metal. It was what made the Seattle band distinct from the punky dirge and dead-beat heaviness of their
grunge contemporaries like Mudhoney back in the late 80s and early 90s.
On their long-awaited return album - the first in 14 years and first with new singer William DuVall following the death of founding member Layne Staley in 2002 - that dynamic is back, mostly to full effect.
The fierce, arcing riffs and mangled dissonance of
Check My Brain
is the album's heavy highlight, while
Last Of My Kind
has a more reckless grind to it with DuVall's snaring vocals making a good fist of filling Staley's big boots.
But then these heavier tracks are contrasted with the elegant and strummed beauty of songs like
Your Decision
, the out-of-kilter singer/songwriter touch of
When the Sun Rose Again
(a real
Heart-Shaped Box
Nirvana moment), and the title track, which features, um, Elton John on piano and not, thankfully, singing.
While the band's darker, more mongrel groove might be too stupefied and deadened to garner a new generation of fans,
Black Gives Way To Blue
is a solid return to form from the great American hard rock'n'metal band.
Scott Kara
