Alice In Chains are working on a new album, bassist Mike Inez has confirmed.
During an otherwise uninteresting interview for guitar makers Framus & Warwick, Inez revealed that the band began to record their sixth studio album last month (when the interview took place).
“Being in the studio for twenty hours a day isn’t fun, but it’s a great job,” he said. “But we try to make that our clubhouse and separate that from the business, kind of. So we’re still in that… playing in the sandbox, kind of, for this new record anyways. We’re still getting together in the same city, and plugging in in the same room.
“Today is actually our first day [recording] and I’m already late, ’cause I’m here talking to you, so it shows you how professional we still are,” he added.
This album will mark an interesting point in the band’s career.
Original vocalist Layne Staley died in 2002, following years of inactivity and drug addiction – the band was basically halted from 1996 onwards while Staley tried and failed numerous times to kick his addiction to heroin.
The band reformed in 2006 with new vocalist William DuVall, recording two well-received albums: 2009’s Black Gives Way To Blue and 2013’s excellently-named The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here.
With this 2017 album, DuVall will have recorded lead vocals on as many albums as Staley – an interesting marker, and testament to the fact that a great band doesn’t necessarily live and die with its vocalist. Now, listen to ‘Rooster’.
