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The history of Alice in Chains is a known story. Leaving a rich discography they quit (although never officially) years ago after they weren’t able to recover from the regretful death of Layne Staley. Now they’re back with a new album “Black Gives Way to Blue“(due September 29) and a fresh tour including “new” singer William DuVall.

Alice in Chains at the Melkweg Amsterdam, August 12 2009 (Ronald Says 7 out of 10)

And of course it’s hard not to compare him to Layne Staley. But we can get this out of the way pretty fast. He gives the band a new face but a familiar voice and the fans seem to have accepted him. The rest of the band haven’t lost their power either. Guitar player Jerry Cantrell plays some very nice solos while drummer Sean Kinney and bass player Mike Inez lay down some big heavy grooves. DuVall plays the crowd with ease and asks for some feedback now and then. Since the set has quite some slow songs it doesn’t really turn the hall into a hard rocking mosh pit but then again that’s not really what you would expect. It does create a nice atmosphere and even the loudly chatting guys next to me can’t get my out of it.

And so they give a very convincing performance playing many all time favourites like “Angry Chair“, “Them Bones“, “Would?” and closing with my favourite “Rooster“. But they also play a couple of songs of their upcoming album that blend in nicely. It does seem that it will be a dark album with slow heavy grooves like “A Looking in View” and “Acid Bubble” but with the unmistaken unique Alice in Chains sound. And so they’re ready for a new chapter and hopefully many nice things to come.