ALICE IN CHAINS Guitarist On New Album: 'It's Pretty Goddamn Crushing'

February 14, 2009

Guitarist Jerry Cantrell of ALICE IN CHAINS recently spoke to Everett True of Australia's The Courier-Mail about the band's decision to reunite following the 2002 passing of the group's lead singer Layne Staley.

"It's a hard thing to do," Cantrell said. "We wanted to honor Layne and honor the music we did together. Loss is a common experience that happens to everyone — everyone dies, man — but we have to live to our ability. Sean [Kinney, drums] wanted to do something about the tsunami victims [referring to the 2005 benefit concert in Seattle for tsunami victims which marked the reunited ALICE IN CHAINS' first performance — Ed.]. It was a very intense experience, but maybe it (the reunion tour) was something we needed to do."

Regarding what fans can expect to hear from ALICE IN CHAINS in 2009, nearly 14 years after the band's last studio album, and shorn of Staley's presence, Cantrell said, "We'll play songs from our career, and we're working on a record right now, so you may get one or two songs from that."

He continued, "We should be done on that album round about the time [we hit Australia as part of the Soundwave Festival in late February]. The new stuff is cool. It's pretty goddamn crushing. I've stepped up a little bit from where I was before. Me and William [DuVall, new ALICE IN CHAINS singer] operate as a tag team.

"Obviously, it'll be a new sound from William being there — but it sounds like an ALICE IN CHAINS record and a kick-ass one. There's everything from the darkest of dark, heavy shit to acoustic stuff. Throw all that together and that's what you'll get."

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