Life Without Keys

A few hours ago the heroes return that is the new Alice in Chains Album leaked, an impressively low 11 days before “official” release.

We have already covered the general quality of the album, an extraordinary return to form for the grunge behemoths of Seattle. Despite missing the Layen Staley jigsaw piece, the band has managed to complete the puzzle anyway with new lead singer DuVall.

Not quite a sound-alike, and not really a “lead” singer as far as Terry Date’s mixing of the album has judged him, DuVall’s power and raw awesomeness he gets from years of singing in a hardcore bank stands him in such good stead when harmonied with Cantrell’s half-folk, half-metal backup singing, that even old Alice fans, surely the hardest of all to win over, have pretty much accepted him as a worthy replacement.

The first track alone, All Secrets Known, will convince you that the fans are right – a staggering track of ethereal bent harmonies and snarling “Frogs” style riff will make you wonder if Staley did in fact “do an Elvis” and was at the recording session. Suddenly we remember how much we missed these boys, and how much we still miss Staley.

It’s a testament to how long it’s been since an Alice release when you consider this is the first of their albums that has had the opportunity to leak this way. In 1995 the internet was a little young for mass-availability of a new album ahead of schedule.Similarly, this album is the first to feature the marketing tools of a free download (A Looking in View) and a paid download single (Check my Brain) – and Velvet Hammer, the band’s present management, have done a damn fine job in collateralising the band’s release with In the Studio videos, an Electronic Press Kit that hit yesterday, video interviews, competitions and more.

While our pre-order of the album has been on the books for aty least a fortnight now, we might well have to accidentally hit “download” to hear it in the meantime.

Welcome to the 21st Century, Alice.