Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Alice In Chains
Label: Capitol Records
Release: year_month
Length: 67:16
Rating: 4.5/5
These days, bands that have genuinely earned their return from the dead, and whose miraculous »come-back« wasn’t just a lousy nostalgia trip to the eighties or nineties, are few and far between. And no, Alice In Chains aren’t a bunch of beer-bellied dudes in a midlife crisis trying to relive their youthful glory one last time before they get slapped into adult diapers, deciding to reunite at a neighborhood BBQ with a Bud Light in one hand and a greasy burger in the other. »Hey, what if we dusted off the guitars for old times’ sake and gave it another shot?« is a sentence the legendary American band has never heard. With the mighty »come-back« record Black Gives Way To Blue, they shook off the demons of the past, soaked in drugs and the death of Layne Staley, and looked cathartically ahead to the future, which has now led them to their new studio album, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here.
On it, Cantrell and co. once again touch on dark and melancholic themes, this time perhaps the bleakest of them all – religion. Marx figured out ages ago that religion is the opium of the people, and Alice In Chains only back that thesis up, thoughtfully and boldly, taking aim chiefly at the American delusion of creationism. Hence the title, which looks weird and nonsensical at first glance; but behind the seemingly empty mask lurks something deeper and more sinister. The idea that the devil put dinosaurs on the earth comes from religious folks who claim that Satan himself planted dinosaur bones in the bowels of the planet, all to confuse humanity and turn believers away from their convictions. So one of the album’s main themes is playing with the easily led, brainwashing, if you will. Lyrically, Alice In Chains are once again deeply and shatteringly dark, at times almost morbidly twisted, but above all brutally honest and realistic.
Over more than an hour of music, Alice In Chains hold on to their trademark sound, only this time it’s even more ominous and sensual. You’ll have a hard time finding a more emotional performance in such a dark guise than from Alice In Chains! It’s all thanks to the one-of-a-kind vocal harmonies of Jerry Cantrell and William DuVall (who keeps proving he fills Staley’s huge shoes superbly and with confidence), terrifying guitar lines, and epic, solemn choruses that, with their coldness, fire a cruel arrow straight into your heart. If Black Gives Way To Blue was a claustrophobic, angry record, its successor heads in a similar direction, only it sounds even more hopeless, even darker, and with its gloomy atmosphere it’s an even more aggressive record at its core. The band pulls it off again with a powerful sense of hopelessness, first and foremost through the use of their »trademark« vocal harmonies, built unmistakably and beautifully by DuVall and Cantrell, near-doom/sludge guitar passages, and weeping lines, sorrowfully woven into songs that are mostly slow to mid-tempo. From the opening catatonic doom with crushing guitars on Hollow, the »Black Sabbath-esque« Stone (with excellent, deep bass lines), and the chilling title epic with its fantastic, unforgettable chorus »The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here/Jesus don’t like a queer/The Devil put dinosaurs here/No problem with faith just fear«, all the way to the dark yet almost solemn closer Choke, which wraps up the record in the best possible way with an atmospheric chorus, Alice In Chains soak us in an atmosphere of dread and despair that has you by the throat from the very first sludgy riff.
And yet, for all that, there’s a light in the darkness that burns like the sun in Plato’s allegory of the cave – Cantrell’s riffs are cathartic, the atmosphere of some of the choruses is mighty and solemn, and the vocals are delivered with such conviction that you can feel the soul of the excellent lyrics in every verse. Because of its length and relative slowness, listening to the record is a hefty chunk to chew through that can leave you drained, but the guys pick up the pulse with a few tracks that step on the gas. Lab Monkey definitely boasts one of the most effective choruses, which Alice In Chains reach through a crazy, demented, schizophrenic feel, while Phantom Limb, one of the best songs on the record, stands out above all for Cantrell’s outstanding, twisted »doom« riffing.
Still, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here isn’t entirely without flaws. Given its length, the record tends to drag and ramble, mainly because of a somewhat weaker middle stretch that loses steam after a great start and only recovers somewhere around Phantom Limb. The second, perhaps even bigger criticism is (once again) the underused DuVall. He has more than proven that his voice is mature and grown up enough for the greatness of Staley’s legacy, yet it seems like Cantrell won’t let him breathe with full lungs. DuVall mostly stays in the background and only shines as lead vocalist in the last quarter of the album, where, especially on Hung On A Hook, he proves he’s cut from the right cloth for a band of Alice In Chains’ caliber.
After Black Gives Way To Blue, the question was whether that »come-back« was just a one-off lucky moment, but the band proves it’s one of the few that, after the death of its central figure, who was also one of the greatest figures in rock music, is managing a new, mighty rebirth. On The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, Cantrell puts human stupidity, naivety, and the need to be led by someone front and center, be it political or religious figures. At the same time, the new album is a strong, Renaissance-style reminder that humans, their minds, and their free will should be the center of the universe. Alice In Chains have once again managed to channel an exceptional message into music, one that few can set to music the way they do. The legendary Seattle boys are proof that they’re not just a nostalgic piss from the »grunge« melting pot (which AiC outdid in every way even back then), but a band that left an indelible mark in the nineties, knows it, and with this rebirth proves it still has plenty to say. The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here will undoubtedly sit at the top of the best-albums-of-the-year lists come year’s end, and with it Alice In Chains have shown they’re like the finest aged wine.
Lineup
Jerry Cantrell -vocals, guitar
William DuVall – vocals, guitar
Sean Kinney – drums
Mike Inez – bass, backing vocals
Production
Nick Raskulinecz and Alice In Chains
Tracklist
1. Hollow
2. Pretty Done
3. Stone
4. Voices
5. The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
6. Lab Monkey
7. Low Ceiling
8. Breath On a Window
9. Scalpel
10. Phantom Limb
11. Hung On a Hook
12. Choke
