Black Gives Way To Blue＜限定盤＞

It's hard not to feel for Alice in Chains -- all the guys in the band were lifers, all except lead singer Layne Staley, who never managed to exorcise his demons, succumbing to drug addiction in 2002. Alice in Chains stopped being a going concern long before that, all due to Staley's addictions, and it took guitarist Jerry Cantrell, bassist Mike Inez, and drummer Sean Kinney a long time to decide to regroup, finally hiring William DuVall as Staley's replacement and delivering Black Gives Way to Blue a full 14 years after the band's last album. To everybody's credit, Black Gives Way to Blue sounds like it could have been delivered a year after Alice in Chains: it's unconcerned with fashion; it's true to their dark, churning gloom rock; and if you're not paying attention too closely, it's easy to mistake DuVall for his predecessor. There's a difference between desperately attempting to recapture past glories and reconnecting with their roots, and Alice in Chains fall into the latter category. While they'll never be mistaken for a feel-good band, there is a palpable sense of relief that they get to play together again as a band, and what's remarkable is that they still sound like themselves, capturing that weird murk halfway between '80s metal and '90s northwestern sludge, reminding us that we were missing something in their absence. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

90年代のグランジ／オルタナ・シーンを牽引した伝説のバンドが、14年ぶりに新作を発表。レイン・ステイリーの〈あの声〉なくしてこのバンドはありえない――彼の死後ずっとそう思ってきたが、ここで鳴らされているのはまぎれもなく〈あの音〉である。新ヴォーカリスト＝ウィリアム・ドゥヴァールの歌声も、まるでレインの魂が乗り移ったかのよう。奈落の底から這い上がったアリチェンが、いま完全復活を遂げたのだ。
bounce (C)粟野竜二