Comments on: CD Review: Alice in Chains, “Black Gives Way to Blue”

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 16:09:00 +0000

Message from War Child Canada: Hey Alice in Chains fans (from a fellow AIC fan), this week’s 102.1 the Edge Thursday 30 Rockin Auction item is a sweet guitar signed by Alice in Chains when they were in Toronto for the BlackDiamondSkye tour. BID NOW! http://www.warchild.ca/auction

All money raised will go towards helping children whose lives have been devastated by war.

By: Erik

Erik — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:17:00 +0000

BGWTB is a good album, I love & respect AIC, but I endlessly miss Staley (still).
Cantrell did his work, but DuVall simply can’t deliver the emotions like Staley was able to.
When I listen to AIC albums (with Staley) I have always the feeling of being on edge, so really scarry and beautiful at the same time.

By: tjtull

tjtull — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:09:30 +0000

…and it's really a shame because I love the songs on this album.

By: tjtull

tjtull — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:06:52 +0000

I don't get it Nick Raskulinecz produced this album and he did a superb job on RUSH's Snakes & Arrows. To overdrive this music to such distorted levels when it was being mastered is INEXCUSABLE. I was thinking just the other day that this CD is really hard to listen to all the way through. Sure enough, it's clipped like no other CD I own. Do these people not realize we have knobs on our stereos for volume. So much of the music is lost to this loudness nonsense. PLEASE STOP IT!! It's ruining music!!

By: DwDunphy

DwDunphy — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:10:12 +0000

It's not about metal being too loud. It's about the recording being so compressed that you lose quality. It's all booming and mucked up. If the mastering had been inched back just a tad, you could hear tones from Cantrell's guitar that are completely lost. The vinyl version shows that pretty clearly. And when I want it really loud, I'll turn the stereo up, but I want to hear the man play for cryin' out loud.

This is why Death Magnetic was superior in almost every way on vinyl versus that overcompressed mess of a CD.

By: DwDunphy

DwDunphy — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:10:12 +0000

This is why Death Magnetic was superior in almost every way on vinyl versus that overcompressed mess of a CD.

By: Curney

Curney — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:02:21 +0000

Yo B Pope, I completely agree with your comments regarding the reviewers article, personally I was impressed that the piano accompaniment on Black Gives Way to Blue is restained and subtle and all the more affecting because of that.

Also what sort of metal fan complains about the music being too loud?

Such a comment must require ones immediate retirement from the metal community.

Finally sorry to be so pedantic but piano accompaniment can clearly be heard on "Sea of Sorrow" also

By: jb

jb — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:17:12 +0000

as a musician and a fan of alice,i know its hard enough to replace such a vital piece of the bands sound(ie-layne) they took time off (maybe even broke up) after layne's passing then found this guy to sing.i haven't heard the album but i have heard ol' bill,and i have to say i just don't like his voice and he's not the right replacement for alice.

its not that he's a bad singer,just not the right guy.poor gary from extreme had to go thru the same thing.though i'm not big on extreme,gary is a good singer...just not for vh.i thought john who replaced vince in the crue was a much better singer than vince.and the bands sound was better.but vince just fits with the crue.

so either way ol' bill is doomed.to me alice would of been better off if jerry took over the vox or they got a singer with a name (like velvet revolver did) he didn't even have to be a big name...just someone who could fill layne's shoes w/o sounding like him.i wish them luck.

By: jb

jb — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:17:12 +0000

By: B. Pope

B. Pope — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:47:43 +0000

Dear Reviewer,

This comment is in regard to your uninformed, cynical comments concerning Elton John's contributing to the new Alice in Chains CD. In a very good, in-depth interview with Jerry Cantrell in Guitar World magazine this past month, Jerry explains how much Elton John's music (and Bernie Taupin's lyrics) meant to him when he was growing up. In fact, he cited Elton John as being his #1 inspiration for making his own music. It just so happened that Elton John was working in the same studio that AiC was using, and given that the AiC CD had this keyboard related track on it (the first time Alice in Chains has ever had any type of keyboard on any of their albums), Jerry had the music and lyrics sent over to Elton, and asked if he might consider playing on the song. It just so happens that this particular song is Jerry's eulogy-of-sorts to Layne Staley, a deeply heartfelt song that Jerry said, because of profound and lingering grief and depression, he couldn't get do until now. The article said that Elton was moved by the lyrics, and coupled with finding out how much Elton had positively influenced and inspired Jerry and his drive to become his own unique musician, Elton agreed to participate. Cynical comments such as yours, especially when uninformed, remind me of why it's a waste of time to read reviews of subjective things like music, works of art, movies, theatre, etc..

P.S. If the CD is too loud, turn down the volume. I know that's asking a lot, but......