:: Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue

Alice In Chains

Black Gives Way To Blue may be the title of Alice In Chains new album but don’t be fooled into thinking things have gotten lighter and cheerier over at the boy’s base camp. The latest offering from this two-decade-old American heavy metal band is more of the same - bleak and dark delivered with snarling vocals and mixed into the odd acoustic rift. For those who aren’t familiar with Alice In Chains or weren’t alive when they formed in 1986, the band sounds a little like Metallica but on an unmistakable blues high that’s all their own. Black Gives Way To Blue kicks off with ‘All Secrets Known’. A perfect opener, this haunting track has an unforgettable grandeur about it and some seriously sharp guitar rifts that would make any Guitar Hero gamer salivate with desire. ‘A Looking In View’ ramps up the album’s intensity and is the most traditionally heavy metal track on the record with its angry chords, throbbing drums and half-sung, half-screamed vocals. Alice In Chains finishes off their latest studio offering with ‘Private Hell’ and title track ‘Black Gives Way to Blue’. Both written by guitarist Jerry Cantrell they stay true his writing style, which is all about personal relationships and human suffering. Both brooding affairs, these tracks draw from alternative rock and grunge influences to create what are two unexpectedly poetic, gentle and almost ballad-like masterpieces. This album is comfortably familiar but still capable of giving you the odd surprise. Another brilliant offering by legends Alice In Chains, Black Gives Way To Blue is sure to keep the fans happy while ensuring the boys don’t become relics of the heavy metal rock scene.