Alice In Chains, Rainier Fog, 2018
By: Erreh Svaia
Rock N Roll Animal
It seems that the only thing that Alice In Chains lost after the death of their vocalist Layney Staley due to drug issues and her bassist Mike Starr, has been the fear of losing some fans, popularity and the spotlights, since the band returned with a new vocalist, it seems that as Daredevil, they have lost their fear and that has made them even better, making reference to Nietzsche, today to 118 years of his Death (I wrote this on Saturday 25), "What does not kill you, makes you stronger", and today Alice In Chains are not more popular than they were with Staley, Seattle´s grunge is kind of out of vogue these days (think of Pearl Jam), but I would dare to say that their music is more relevant, proponent and vital, the band seems to have decided to start from scratch and work diligently in the construction of something of their very own once again, The One You Know, first theme of his new Rainier Fog starts with a brutal riff, of admirable rawness, the all or nothing, the permanence, the insistence, the elements that made the band big, continue there, colossal riffs, a solid work of the rhythm section and those choirs that only this band knows how to work in such a way, giving a very particular texture to their creations, William DuVall is not Staley, but he manages to keep the band intact in his sound before our ears primordial, and that is already surprising given the detailed sound of it.
Black Gives Way to Blue and The Devil Puts Dinosaurs Here have been records of an irrefutable quality, powerful from beginning to end, with a DuVall perfectly integrated in the band, with a revitalized sound that seems to have lost absolutely nothing of its essence, the only thing that we can perceive as change is that the band has become more risky, more daring, which has cost them popularity, but they have been able to complement it with the wisdom of the years that allows them to sound relevant and willing to everything, as in the theme that gives title to the album, with an impossible cadence to elude, with a smooth and perfect vocal line, advancing to infinity pretending never to abandon us, the band sounds more satisfied with themselves, but not in a sense of comfort, on the contrary , it seems that their close encounters with death have made them fear less to take risks, as in Red Giant, another portent of pieces in which they are once again sent to produce a frontal collision between ethereal celestial vowels and infernal monolithic riffs, furiously confronted with singular talent.
Drone seems to evoke part of the great influence that bands like Black Sabbath have on the group, besides the spirit of blues, and those vocals that refer me personally to bands like The Hollies, or maybe, going further, to the Crosby , Stills and Nash, including some guitars by Chris DeGarmo, member of Seattle's other residents, Queensryche, while Deaf Ears Blind Eyes is a true tour de force with respect to emotive guitars and epic vocals by DuVall, who in Maybe also gets an extraordinary vocal work that undoubtedly becomes the main attraction of this theme, which only adds to the formidable solidity with which the band has built this album, dark yes, darker than usual, with riffs truly spectacular, as in So Far Under, the harsh Never Fade Away or the infinitely expansive All I Am, which closes to perfection a disc quite introspective, risky and a sun a piece, which continues to show a band that moves away from the reflectors, not as a sign of withdrawal, but to become more dangerous, wiser and in the end stronger after it has resisted even death, if bands like The Melvins or Mudhoney fled Seattle to escape a safe commercial death from overexposure, Alice in Chains remained, enjoyed and then suffered, almost completely collapsed and nowadays as the phoenix continue to resurface again and again, and Rainier Fog It is a solid and indisputable proof of this.
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