Alice In Chains - Rainier Fog: Album Review

 

If you're looking for unbiased opinions on Alice In Chains please quickly and quietly fuck off.

I've been a die hard AiC fan since high school. This was back when I was knee deep in the dead-end genre that was grunge. Unlike most people however, I actually still gave a shit about grunge after high school (haha remember that whole Grunginator business ha wow I was dumb) and have been closely following Mudhoney, Soundgarden (RIP Chirs Cornell), and yes, Alice in Chains ever since. I kept an especially close eye on them, since Jerry Cantrell is a very talented musician, and his decision to reunite Alice In Chains with a new vocalist was a bit iffy at the time, but 2 albums in and I was hooked. Black Gives Way To Blue was a bit of a mixed bag, but at least proved that William DuVall was a competent vocalist. The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, on the other hand, was an underrated little gem. The band stomped its foot and said “No, fuck it, we're a fucking doom metal band now” and made some of the most aggressive and heavy material in their discography. I still get chills listening to the dissonant notes against the crushing chords of “Hollow”, along with DuVall and Cantrell's wonderful and spooky vocal harmonies. So yeah, I was pretty excited for “Rainier Fog”. The album, however, really doesn't live up to expectations.

Alice In Chains' songwriting approach on “Rainier Fog” can best be compared to their earlier works, such as “Facelift” or “Dirt”. Actually, thinking on it now, “Facelift” is probably the best comparison, as “Rainier Fog” is much more of a hard rock album than the heavy sludge/grunge sound that defined the most recent half of the band's career. “Rainier Fog” focuses more on heavy melody and straight forward beats than the crushing intensity of “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” or the messy, noisy beauty of “Black Gives Way to Blue”. And that's sort of where the album starts to loose me. Say what you will about Alice In Chains, but since the band's return, they have avoided, almost renounced, the more traditional grunge/hard rock sound that got them off the ground. Jerry Cantrell even famously considers the band a heavy metal act rather than a grunge one. So to hear Alice In Chains going more soft on “Rainier Fog” was a bit of a disappointment. Instead of crushing heavy doom metal bangers like “Hollow” or “Stone”, we get more traditional hard rock riffing and less intense vocal harmonies as seen on “The One You Know” and the title track. “Rainier Fog” honestly ends up feeling like the half baked come back album we all expected “Black Gives Way To Blue” to be.

Now even though the album comes off as half baked, it's certainly not bad. Not even close. It's not even boring, really, just soft. Though it took me some time to get into, “Raininer Fog” is a bit better than I'm making it out to be. “The One You Know” took a few listens to really sink in, but boy is it a strong rock track. The heavy guitars and marching verse riff blasting into that harmonious chorus is just wonderful. The title track, though less bleak and heavy is still catchy as hell, while “Red Giant” is a nice bone thrown for the “Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” crowd, being more doomy sludge than a big old sludge of doom. And, when the melodies come together, the band can really put together a pretty catchy track. The album's title track might seem a little light, focusing on 1 riff for most of the track, but trust me when I say it's a grower.

The back half of the record is certainly where things start to get boring. “Drone”, “Deaf Ears Blind Eyes”, and “Maybe” all kind of just bleed together, not really having much in the way of interesting song structure or lyrics. “Never Fade” meanwhile ends up being one of the most hollow pop rock songs in the band's discography. “All I Am” ends up being a better track, a nice ballad to finish off with its mostly clean guitars and hypnotic, droning riffs. And even though I'm a bout to shit on it in the next paragraph, “So Far Under” ends up being a stronger track with its more sludgy approach in writing, and the aforementioned Duvall/Cantrell vocal delivery.

Lyrically, the band is still firing on all cylinders, dealing with the usual bleak Alice In Chains lyric catalog: sadness, depression, loss, etc. It certainly does come off as 2edgy4me at times, the example springing to mind being “So Far Under”, being about dwelling in depression with lyrics such as “All my words sucked straight into the void, Same black hole where my heart was destroyed”. Even if it can be edgy, AiC at least have their hearts in the right place so I won't fault them too much for it.

“Rainier Fog” will probably go down in history as some of AiC's weaker material. While I agree it's not there best, there are some pretty well made tracks on here. The tracks are pretty polished, there's lots of talent on display, but what ultimately fails it is Alice In Chain's doing what they have avoided doing for so long: going along with the crowd. Alice In Chains aren't followers. They're leaders. When they stomped their foot and chose a new direction, it was for the better. “Rainier Fog” is just a step backwards. I'm sure it's only a stumble and not a fall, but boy I hope I'm right. 

6/10