Black Gives Way to Blue is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Alice in Chains, released on September 29, 2009, through a joint venture between Virgin and EMI Records. Its release fell on the 17th anniversary of the release of their second album, Dirt. It is their first record without founding lead singer Layne Staley, who died in 2002, and their first album with rhythm guitarist William DuVall. It is the band's first venture away from Columbia Records, who handled all of their previous releases. The span of nearly fourteen years between the self-titled album and Black Gives Way to Blue marks the longest gap between studio albums in Alice in Chains' career.
After ceasing activity following Staley's death, the band reunited in early 2005 to play a benefit show, subsequently deciding to reunite to play live full-time. DuVall joined the band in Staley's place in 2006. Work on the album began in April 2007, but recording did not begin until October 2008 with producer Nick Raskulinecz. The album was recorded at Dave Grohl's Studio 606 in Northridge and at the Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles, produced by Raskulinecz and Alice in Chains. The slow progress was partly due to the fact that the band did not have a record label at the time of the recording; the album was funded by Cantrell and drummer Sean Kinney. The recording process was completed on March 18, 2009, Cantrell's 43rd birthday. The band had signed with Virgin and EMI by late April.
Musically, the album sees the band return to the heavy metal/hard rock style of Dirt and Facelift instead of the murky dark mood that their third album showcased with more grunge-fuzz pedal elements; some songs are noted for their acoustic elements. It also includes songs which Cantrell described as "the heaviest he's ever written". Most of the lead vocal performances on the album were recorded by Cantrell; DuVall contributed lead vocals to "Last of My Kind", as well as backing vocals throughout the album.
The album debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200, and was certified gold by the RIAA on May 26, 2010, with shipments exceeding 500,000 copies in the U.S. and over 1 million copies sold worldwide. It spawned four singles: "A Looking in View", "Check My Brain", "Your Decision", and "Lesson Learned". "Check My Brain" and "A Looking in View" were both nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Black Gives Way to Blue won Revolver magazines Golden Gods Award for Album of the Year in 2010.
Background
The band's original run and aftermath In the early 1990s, the American rock band Alice in Chains rose to prominence amidst a wave of interest in grunge music. Their debut album, Facelift (1990), was certified gold in the United States before peers such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden were even known to the general public. They followed with Dirt (1992), which brought the band worldwide popularity. Frontman Layne Staley developed a heroin addiction over that time which continually hampered the band's ability to perform live; eventually, this led to the band completely ceasing performances after their third studio album, a self-titled album released in 1995. Although several new songs were recorded for a greatest hits compilation titled Nothing Safe: Best of the Box in 1998, the band's future remained uncertain. In 2002, Layne Staley was found dead from a drug overdose, and the band effectively ceased to exist.
The remaining members of Alice in Chains decided to pursue their own projects. Guitarist Jerry Cantrell was already focused on his second solo album, Degradation Trip (2002), and toured with members of Comes with the Fall to support it. Drummer Sean Kinney and former Queensrÿche guitarist Chris DeGarmo formed the band Spys4Darwin, releasing the EP Microfish. Bassist Mike Inez was considered as a possible replacement for Metallica's Jason Newsted, who had departed that band in 2001, but the vacant position eventually went to Robert Trujillo, and Inez instead joined the rock band Heart. In 2004, Sony BMG terminated the band's 15-year-old contract with Columbia Records, citing that the band had ceased performing as Alice in Chains.
Reunion On December 26, 2004, a few months after the band's termination, the largest underwater earthquake in modern history occurred in the Indian Ocean off the coast of northern Indonesia, resulting in a devastating tsunami which killed over 200,000 people. This spurred Kinney to organize a benefit concert in Seattle to support the victims, and he invited the former members of Alice in Chains to take part in it. This became the first in a series of what Kinney called "little steps" toward renewed activity for the band. The show took place on February 18, 2005, and it was the band's first live performance since 1996.
On March 10, 2006, the surviving members performed at VH1's Decades Rock Live! concert, honoring fellow Seattle musicians Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart. Comes with the Fall vocalist William DuVall made his first public performance with the band during that show singing Alice in Chains' "Rooster". The band followed the concert with a short United States club tour, several festival dates in Europe, and a brief tour in Japan. DuVall joined Alice in Chains as lead singer during the band's reunion concerts. DuVall was an old friend of Cantrell's. They met in Los Angeles in 2000 through a mutual acquaintance, and Comes with the Fall was both the opening act and also Cantrell's backing band during the tour for his second solo album, Degradation Trip, in 2001 and 2002.
Kinney mentioned in a February 2006 interview that he would be interested in writing new material, but not as Alice in Chains. He explained, "If we found some other dude, I'd love to move on, write some cool tunes and change the name and go on like that. I don't see continuing as Alice and replacing somebody. ... We're not trying to replace Layne. We want to play these songs one more time, and if it seems like the right thing to do, it'll happen. I don't know how long it will go or where it will take us. It's kind of a tribute to Layne and our fans, the people who love these songs. It's not some 'I'm broke and I need the money' situation. We love playing together." Later in that same interview, Cantrell stated, "We want to celebrate what we did and the memory of our friend. We have played with some [singers] who can actually bring it and add their own thing to it without being a Layne clone. We're not interested in stepping on [Staley's] rich legacy. [...] Do you take the Led Zeppelin approach and never play again, because the guy was that important? [...] Or, do you give it a shot, try something? We're willing to take a chance on it."
Recording In April 2007, the band's "official blogger", Baldy, posted an update on progress towards the writing of the album, saying that Alice in Chains had been in Los Angeles, California for five days, "sat through three rehearsals and one demo recording session, listened to several other demos" and the new material was "kicking his ass right out of his pants." By March 2008, the band started writing and working together, and that was the start of the new album. According to Kinney, they just wanted to hear what their new music sounded like, as they were at Carmen Miranda's old studio, so they decided to record it. "It’s a very musical place. And everything was so good we decided to record it. It's a tremendous undertaking, but at the end of it I haven’t felt this good about something since we were kids". In September 2008, it was reported that Alice in Chains would enter the studio that October to begin recording a new album for a summer 2009 release.
Recording began on October 23, 2008 at the Foo Fighters' Studio 606 in Northridge, California, with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Rush, Stone Sour, Trivium, Shadows Fall, Death Angel). The band did not have a record label at the time and the album was funded by Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney. In December 2008, they moved into the Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Staley's mother, Nancy McCallum, was supportive of the band's decision to move on and visited them during their recording sessions. Other members of Staley's family were also supportive of the band. Manager Susan Silver said "it was really important that it was OK with them". In April 2009, Cantrell told at the Revolver's Golden Gods Awards Show that Alice in Chains had finished recording the album on March 18, 2009 (his 43rd birthday and also the same day that William DuVall's son was born), and were in the process of mixing it for a September release. Elton John recorded the piano track for the song "Black Gives Way to Blue" in a Las Vegas studio on April 23, 2009.
Manager David Benveniste began approaching record labels with a sampling of four or five songs from the new sessions, and the offers started coming from every major label. The band eventually signed with Virgin/EMI.
Music and lyrics
In April 2009, a blog post from the band expressed the hope that "these songs will strike a chord and make a similar impact on all of you out there that were moved by this band in the first place." Kinney said that the music on the album doesn't deviate too far from the band's past music, adding, "It's nice to sound like yourself...It's not really that hard, actually. I know people are blown away that we really sound like ourselves, and I understand the apprehension, but it's not really that big a stretch to sound the way that you sound." There are hard rock as well as acoustic songs featured on the album.
Kinney said that there are lyrics on the album that deal with original vocalist Layne Staley. He elaborated, "There's not a day that goes by that I don't think of him. And there's a lot to address, with all of that stuff coming to the forefront. A lot has happened since 1995; a lot has happened in our lives and we've never talked about it or discussed it publicly. So some of that is what's addressed here. That's the way we operate, it's about what really happened in life. We're not really the fast cars and chicks songs. It's basically what's happened in life, but a lot has happened since the last record. And it's on this record."
The title track, "Black Gives Way to Blue", was written as a tribute to Staley and features Cantrell on lead vocals and Elton John on piano. Regarding the lyrics to other specific songs, Cantrell said the first single from the album, "A Looking in View", "basically speaks to any number of things that keep you balled up inside." The second single, "Check My Brain", features lyrics dealing with Cantrell's move from Seattle to Los Angeles in 2003. The third single, "Your Decision", contains lyrics about "surviving pain and choosing to live." Cantrell also denied a popular misconception that the song "Private Hell" is about Layne Staley, but about himself breaking up with a girl that he loved a lot and he "wasn't man enough to go through with it", although he conceded that there are a lot of things in the song that aren't specifically about that and other people can relate to.
"Last of My Kind" is the only song in the album that features William DuVall singing lead vocals without harmonizing with Cantrell, who only sings back up vocals in the song. DuVall also wrote the lyrics and the melody of the song.
Cantrell said about singing lead vocals in the album:
Title When Chris Cornell and Susan Silver's then 9-year-old daughter Lily Cornell Silver asked her mother "what does Black Gives Way to Blue mean?", Silver suggested they call her uncle Jerry [Cantrell] and ask him, and Cantrell explained to her:
On December 1, 2020, Cornell Silver made her musical debut performing the song along with Chris DeGarmo at the MoPOP Founders Award tribute to Alice in Chains following an introduction by her mother.
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