Alice in Chains were one of the greatest bands of Grunge, the musical movement started in Seattle of the 90s that led to worldwide notoriety not only them but also to Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Alice in Chains, 14 years after the last studio album, return with Black Gives Way to Blue. The long pause is explained in part by the death of singer Layne Staley in 2002, one of the souls of the band.
The principal author of the group, however, was and is the guitarist Jerry Cantrell and his new work is certainly up to the standard of the past. In today's music scene, often disappointing and pitiful, Alice in Chains sound like a light in the darkness. But Layne Staley or the unrepeatable season of grunge cannot be revived. That music was revolutionary, the dark and angry soundtrack of the end of a millennium that allowed little hope for the next one. Today, the new singer William DuVall performs his task with skill and a certain similarity with Staley's voice, but the album does not bring anything new, only a return to the past.
The music of Alice in Chains was more gloomy than the other grunge bands: lyrics spoke of self-destruction, loneliness, despair. Layne Staley lived all this to the bitter end and died of an overdose in 2002. But the widespread anger and pain among younger generations that music could express so well found an outlet in the real world in the explosion of anti-globalization movement, in Seattle in 1999. But grunge was unfortunately unable to follow the movement and innovate itself. The movement, 10 years later appears to be turned off, suffocated in the blood of the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa and overshadowed by the permanent war.
All the great genres of music are always linked to some great social change, from the 50s to the 70s rock, with the struggles for civil rights. When they aren't, it's just disposable entertainment. And in fact, is what triumph now in the media mainstream, conformist, banal, music, built at a table by the majors, without the rebellion streak that had in the past. It is no coincidence that this happens. Bands that took strong political positions have suffered censorship and ostracism, as happened to the Dixie Chicks, and on television never airs anything that might seem controversial. The younger generations have to be anesthetized to become good consumers.
The music of Alice in Chains was more gloomy than the other grunge bands: lyrics spoke of self-destruction, loneliness, despair. Layne Staley lived all this to the bitter end and died of an overdose in 2002. But the widespread anger and pain among younger generations that music could express so well found an outlet in the real world in the explosion of anti-globalization movement, in Seattle in 1999. But grunge was unfortunately unable to follow the movement and innovate itself. The movement, 10 years later appears to be turned off, suffocated in the blood of the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa and overshadowed by the permanent war.
All the great genres of music are always linked to some great social change, from the 50s to the 70s rock, with the struggles for civil rights. When they aren't, it's just disposable entertainment. And in fact, is what triumph now in the media mainstream, conformist, banal, music, built at a table by the majors, without the rebellion streak that had in the past. It is no coincidence that this happens. Bands that took strong political positions have suffered censorship and ostracism, as happened to the Dixie Chicks, and on television never airs anything that might seem controversial. The younger generations have to be anesthetized to become good consumers.
Many musicians have abdicated their part in one of their main functions, to talk about the problems of society, and they pretend to do a job like any other. But music is not a job, should be art, and art should look at the world around or becomes tedious, useless and detached from reality. The grunge was music that spoke mostly of personal problems, yet it lived in symbiosis with the same cultural milieu from which the protests against globalization originated . Grunge spoke of a suffocating world, devoid of ideals and hopes, and from this arose a rebellion against the inhumane and conformist society where we live. Several groups that made the history of grunge are still active and able to make great music, like Alice in Chains, but the movement no longer exists and their music is no longer revolutionary.
Francesco Defferrari
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