Alice In Chains: New Album and Tour

I don't post much music news on this site...because music news is everywhere out there in the digital online ether....but I stole this from the Blabbermouth site today. Its big news for grunge-oids like me....

ALICE IN CHAINS are giving fans a sneak preview of their highly anticipated upcoming album, "Black Gives Way To Blue" (Virgin/EMI) by posting a brand-new song online. The seven-minute-long track, titled "A Looking In View", can be heard on www.aliceinchains.com. A companion video for the song is forthcoming and its trailer is available on the band's site. "A Looking In View" will appear on "Black Gives Way To Blue", in stores September 29.

About "A Looking In View", ALICE IN CHAINS vocalist/guitarist Jerry Cantrell says, "The song basically speaks to any number of things that keep you balled up inside. A cell of our own making with an unlocked door that we choose to remain in. Focusing our attention inward instead of reaching out to a much larger world. I think this is common to us all. It's funny how hard we fight to hang on to a bone we can't pull through a hole in the fence, or how difficult it is to put down the bag of bricks and move on."

On July 18, ALICE IN CHAINS will be sharing the stage with KID ROCK at Comerica Park in Detroit, to be followed by festival shows with METALLICA overseas, including an August 1 date at Marlay Park in Dublin and an August 2 show at the Sonisphere festival at Knebworth. They'll wrap up the international trip with a string of headlining dates, set to kick off August 4 with a sold-out performance at London's Scala. On August 22, they'll join TOOL and LINKIN PARK for the first-ever Epicenter show at the Fairplex in Pomona, California, to be followed by a headlining tour set to kick off September 4 at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC. Tickets for the U.S. shows will be available Friday, July 10.

"Black Gives Way To Blue" is the band’s first new studio release in more than 10 years. The quartet (guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell, drummer Sean Kinney, bassist Mike Inez and vocalist/guitarist William DuVall) recorded the album with producer Nick Raskulinecz (RUSH, FOO FIGHTERS) at Studio 606 in Northridge, California and Henson Studios in Hollywood.

Upcoming ALICE IN CHAINS shows:

July 18 - Detroit, MI - Comerica Park (with Kid Rock)
Aug. 01 - Dublin, IE - Marlay Park
Aug. 02 - Stevenage, GB -Knebworth House - Sonisphere
Aug. 04 - London, GB - Scala
Aug. 06 - Cologne, DE Essigfabrik
Aug. 08 - Berlin, DE - Columbia Club
Aug. 10 - Hamburg, DE - Grunspan
Aug. 12 - Amsterdam, NL - Melkweg
Aug. 22 - Pomona, CA - Epicenter
Sep. 04 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
Sep. 05 - Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts
Sep. 07 - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
Sep. 08 - New York, NY - The Fillmore
Sep. 15 - Toronto, ON - The Opera House
Sep. 16 - Cleveland, OH - House of Blues
Sep. 19 - Chicago, IL - House of Blues
Sep. 20 - Milwaukee, WI - The Rave
Sep. 21 - Minneapolis, MN - First Ave
Sep. 26 - Portland, OR - Roseland Grill
Sep. 28 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore

William Duvall better not try to channel Layne Staley on this album. There is nobody who can channel, mimic, emulate or aspire to be the late Layne Staley. Not that spindly has-been goat bearded Sully from Godsmack, not Alterbridge, or Creed or Seven Mary Three or that piece of dangling dung from Linkin Park,not Staind or Days of the New or Tantric either.

A big hearty "FU" to all of you posers. There was only one Layne Staley. He may have died alone with rigor mortis hands gripping an xbox joystick after his last great speedball....but his voice was one of a kind.

Here is the new song from the upcoming album Black Gives Way To Blue




Let me know what you think...and put your Godsmack CD under your pint glass where it belongs.