Band’s music as vital as ever
The newest version of Seattle’s Alice in Chains is enjoying critical acclaim, TOM MURRAY writes.
Somewhere there’s a televangelist who probably has no idea he’s responsible for the title of the new Alice in Chains record.
When guitarist Jerry Cantrell overheard the phrase, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here seemed the perfect title to embody a catalogue of prejudices buttressed by religious belief. For Cantrell, bassist Mike Inez and drummer Sean Kinney, it proved inspirational.
A strange topic for a band normally known for more inwardly directed lyrical concerns? Maybe, but for Cantrell, at least, it’s truly amazing that in 2013 some people are still debating creationism versus evolution.
“It is crazy that in America we have government representatives talking about (creationism) as science.”
The title track certainly sticks out from everything else in the band’s catalogue, though Alice in Chains isn’t so much bringing anything new to the table as reflecting the public conversation, as Cantrell is quick to point out.
“It’s not a new subject,” he says. “It’s been talked about before, but at some point in our existence we figured out a few things. The Earth isn’t flat, and we revolve around the sun rather the other way around. These are accepted facts now but they probably could have gotten you killed years ago if you repeated them. It blows me away.”
The rest of The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here sounds like classic Alice in Chains, pure metal sludge and “filth,” a term Cantrell has used in various interviews. It’s the fifth full-length album in a career that has seen more ups and downs than average, with in-group turmoil and death almost overshadowing the music. The album has re-established the band as a vital commercial force, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard charts.
Lots to talk about, then, but there’s also the publicist’s sheepish admonition to the interviewer at the beginning not to ask any questions about the band that touches on the members’ personal lives. Presumably Cantrell is tired of rehashing the deaths of singer Layne Staley (2002) and former bassist Mike Starr (2011), both from drug abuse. The message is clear: Keep to the new record, please.
“We’re at an interesting place right now,” Cantrell says. “You don’t expect to get to old age when you’re a young musician, especially with the whole myth and reality of live fast, die young, sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll.
“I mean, I’m in it until I blow up, don’t get me wrong,” he says. “The fact is that some of us did, some of us didn’t, and we’re pretty lucky to get here. We maybe didn’t plan on it, but you do find that it’s pretty cool to stick around. I’m grateful to have made it through, and not ashamed of owning everything I did, good and bad.”
A nicely circumspect way for Cantrell to touch on the subjects everyone eventually brings up, without having to revisit the past over and over again. And why should he want to do that?
The Seattle group rode on the wave of grunge bands then taking over the airwaves, though the association was in no way an accurate one. Alice in Chains was closer to classic metal than anything else, with excursions into acoustic sounds, as on the multiplatinum selling 1994 EP, Jar of Flies. They managed a good number of hits through the early to mid-’90s (Rooster, No Excuses, Heaven Beside You) before going on extended hiatus in ’96 due to vocalist Staley’s drug problems.
The newest version of Alice in Chains, with singer William DuVall (who joined in 2006), has been enjoying critical acclaim since firing back up with 2009’s Black Gives Way to Blue, and Cantrell is unabashed in his declaration that the band is putting out music as vital as their 1992 mega hit, Dirt.
“I just relistened to it (the new album) last night after not hearing it for three months and damn but we put out a great album. The approach we took was similar to every record we’ve ever done. It’s just a capsule of a period of time, the things we were thinking about and wanted to get down. To be able to do that and have people respond to the album is amazing.”
Where people might respond wrongly is in thinking Alice in Chains’s turbulent lyrics are in any way representative of the band members themselves.
“There’s this dark, sarcastic humour that’s there if you know the band,” Cantrell says. “A lot of people don’t, of course, and that’s completely fine. It’s kind of comforting to have this separate public persona from the harsh lyrical content we’re known for. Definitely there’s not a lot of fluff in what we do.
“But if you see some of the interviews we do, or check out the electronic press kit, you’ll see that we’re pretty hilarious as a band. We like to have a good time. Maybe it’s for the best that we have this schizophrenic nature, or else we’d all go nuts.”