William DuVall: new Alice In Chains singer
 

Since AIC is in the studio now & Jerry Cantrell is working with William DuVall on the new Alice In Chains album, I was wondering if anyone here has gotten a chance to hear the new line up..they played some shows last year. I am most curious to know if DuVall sounds at all like Layne or are their voices distinctly different/.

I haven't heard anything, personally.

I don't have much of a desire to.

I am a little scared as well...hence my question. In my estimation, bands like AIC can't be interchanged in the same way that Jimmy Page disassembled Zeppelin after Bonzo's untimely death.

Jerry Cantrell is quite the discerning musician and I wonder how he is producing this album... guess we'll find out soon enough I think it's scheduled for 2009 release.

Said many times before. DuVall is like 10 times cooler than Cantrell or whoever he was. Plus, he was in a much cooler band in Neon Christ.

DuVall >>>>>> Other guy

You mean Layne Staley? I will have to hear to see for myself. Neon Christ huh...I will check them out- thanks

No one cares....they haven't been relevant in years.

That's right thank you for reminding me. They are almost as irrelevant as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, NWA, RunDMC, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Hendrix, The Doors, The Beatles, and Elvis.

Thank God for the Jonas Brothers, Kanye West and Miley Cyrus to indemnify us from ever listening to irrelevant music again.

Well, I wasnt saying it to be a ****, i was simply saying that by now, no one cares, b/c they havent been relevant, or released anything good in about 15 years.

Shame on you for even putting them in the same sentence w/those other bands you mentioned. AIC weren't "innovators" or "Godfathers of grunge" or anything else someone will claim them to be. Just another, in a long line of bands, thay had their day in the sun. Sad to say that once their singer died, seems the band did too.

By the way, I wouldn't claim that Miley Cyrus/Kanye Waste/or the Jonas brothers have an ounce of talent, especially musically, in their bodies. I'm sure I'm in the minority saying that, but it';s true. Selling records to little kids doesn't make you great, nor does it qualify you to be a huge SS.

Nirvana going out and finding a new singer and calling themselves "Nirvana" wouldn't work, you know it, I do, and many who post here do. So, why try to re-create something you know won't work before you begin?

ok that's a little better and more clear.

i will agree with you on some things esp comments on newer artists.

however we must simply agree to disagree. are you a musician by any chance? AIC's vocals ( having a dual-lead or even sometimes triple lead vocal ) was completely unprecedented at the time and the harmonies in the Layne Staley-Jerry Cantrell combination were lush with complicated harmonic and melodic scalics using interesting inversions...one in particular was to place the dominant 5th below the root melody giving it that 'sinister' quality that Staleys' baritone voice brought out even more. Look at what happened to music at the time Alice In Chains first came up on the radar...it destroyed the glam-band malaise that was chronic and ubiquitious in the 80s. I'm in my 30's now so maybe I am older than you and remember it better. Anyway..if you ever got to see Alice in Chains live ( before Staley became a super junkie ) you would have been blown away like you would at a Zeppelin show.

another thing though that i will agree with you is that the reason i started this thread is that i am not really sure i like the idea of replacing Layne with any other singer...I don't think there will be ever the chance for AIC to rise ( like a Phoenix lol no pun intended ) up and fly again esp under same name. I think DuVall is a talented dude but I am not sure this will fly. Cantrell should have simply had Duvall join his Degradation Trip band etc...

I never even knew Alice in Chains was reforming with a new lead singer in DuVall... I guess if he's good they'll at least maintain their strong and fairly rabid fan base.

I gotta say though that once groups disband and reform, it probably takes them a little while to regain the momentum they had in their heyday.

The Smashing Pumpkins "reunion" (it was really only Corgan and Chamberlin) sounds like a good idea and Zeitgeist was actually a pretty solid Pumpkins album, albeit a little pared back and conservative... but I think its going to take another album or two to get the wheels rolling freely again.

The same with some other "reformed" faves of mine- for example Crowded House... Time on Earth was a great album, but had Neil Finn solo record written all over it. I expect the next one will sound more cohesive and "band album" like.

Reformations CAN work, I think, if the artists are dedicated and aren't just cashing in on the nameplate... so if real passion and a desire to be the "band" once again are fueling the AIC reformation fire - then it could be a VERY good thing.

I for one actually miss them a fair bit.