Skip to main content

IN REVIEW: Alice in Chains - "Rainier Fog"


With the release of their sixth album, Alice in Chains now officially have as many albums with William Duvall as their lead singer as they did with Layne Staley during the band's rise as part of the Seattle scene in the early '90s. This means that we now have the option to assess the two halves of Alice in Chains' career on more or less equal footing.

If we choose to separate these two phases of the band, it's a little easier to make more rational judgments; after all, we can't honestly compare Layne and William in any way other than their vocal similarities; Duvall isn't burdened by a crippling addiction, and Staley sadly didn't live long enough to enjoy the clarity and reflection that is often afforded my middle age. So, then, why hold an album like Rainier Fog up beside an established classic like Dirt and expect to draw true parallels?

That said, of the three albums released in this current incarnation, Rainier Fog offers the most variety and highest quality tunes. It doesn't suffer from the same mid-tempo grind that was 2013's The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here and, even though there are certainly moments of dark reflection (as is par for the course with Alice in Chains), they've done a much better job of adding flourishes of colour to their predominantly grey palette.

Rainier Fog plays like a very pensive, reflective record, perhaps partially due to it being the first Alice in Chains record actually recorded in Seattle; this gives the album an air of authenticity that hasn't necessarily been missing from previous albums, but seems pushed more to the forefront here.

Musically, one pretty much knows what to expect from Alice in Chains, and Rainier Fog is home to some of the strongest songs in the band's latter career. Also worth noting is the way this album ends; whereas past albums have proven to be somewhat difficult to sit through, with Rainier Fog Alice in Chains seems to have saved its strongest material for the home stretch. While the A-side is home to some standard AIC fare and doesn't necessarily stand out, the album's last four songs offer the level of melody and crunch that have endeared fans to the band all along. Loading the closing moments with some of the album's best material feels both like a beautiful reward and a sly trick played on those who would give up halfway through.

Rainier Fog likely won't win over bitter listeners who can't accept someone other than Layne Staley as the band's main voice and weren't swayed in the slightest with the previous two; however, Alice in Chains have come through with their best album of the Duvall era, one that not only isn't a slog to sit through but in fact offers plenty of reason to come back again and again.

August 24, 2018 • BMG
Highlights So Far Under • Never Fade • All I Am

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Year in Rock 2025

  Alright, I've got some explaining to do.   By now anyone who's visited this blog is well aware of how infrequently I've used this space in recent years; aside from the occasional fertile year of content, I really haven't posted all that often over the last five years or so. There are many reasons for this, which have already been outlined in previous apology posts; but, essentially, it boils down to my own laziness and the cold reality that blogs are, like Refused (again), fucking dead. So, I wouldn't hold my breath for a triumphant return to reviews, or even semi-regular posts, but:   a) I feel like Year in Rock posts have always belonged here and, even though I've experimented with different methods of presentation recently and been satisfied, the "blink and you missed it" unveiling via Facebook stories this year was perhaps ultimately a disservice to the records I lauded. After all, cramming the list into short videos isn't too far off from ju...
Post a Comment
Read more

Year in Rock 2011 Nominee: Sam Roberts Band

SAM ROBERTS BAND I Feel You From: Collider Released: May 10 Having already endured the breakout success ( Brother Down was Canada's it rock song of 2002), the tentative dabbling in the U.S. market, as is the rite of passage for all moderately successful Canuck artists (2003's debut We Were Born in a Flame was the best time to try; one of the best albums of the year, it made a small dent in the American mindset upon its release there a year later), the difficult, druggy third album (the aptly named 2005 disc Chemical City ), and the subdued creative step backward (2008's Love at the End of the World , aside from hit single Them Kids , was really kinda bland), it seems according to script that Sam Roberts would start settling in on his fourth album (and first with the band credited as equal contributors), Collider (you know, I think it was a bad idea to give me brackets). Well, as far as settling in goes, Roberts does and doesn't on Collider .  W...
Post a Comment
Read more

IN REVIEW: Rancid - "Trouble Maker"

As far as punk rock goes, it's hard to name a hotter hot streak than the trio of records Rancid cranked out between 1995 and 2000; the star making ...And Out Come the Wolves , the far-reaching Life Won't Wait and their balls-to-the-wall second self-titled album solidly positioned Rancid as leaders of the second generation of punk. It also preceded a period of slow progression, as Rancid would take eleven years to release their next three records. By the time ...Honor Is All We Know came in 2014, many fans (myself included) had to wonder whether or not this was the end of the road. Such concerns are handily dealt with on the closing track of the standard edition of their ninth record, the positively punishing This Is Not the End . Well, okay then, that's sorted. Now, what of this new record? What do we make of the use of their original logo on the cover, a logo that hasn't graced a Rancid record in 25 years? Is this a throwback to the band's heyday, a new begin...
Post a Comment
Read more