July 2021 Feature Release – The Gateway Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Gateway has been nominated by Saxy S. It's 2013's divisive & underrated "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" album from Seattle alternative metal/grunge legends Alice In Chains. I have strong feelings about this record & think it's deserving of more attention than it's been afforded by many fans so it'll be interesting to see which way our regulars go with it.

https://metal.academy/releases/145

Delighted to see this up on the features for this month.  Not often I go straight to The Gateway for my first listen in a new month but Saxy pulled a great move here in selecting this.  I was already familiar with the release and even upped my rating of it after spending some more time with it today.

I am going to immediately go out on a limb and openly admit to liking Will Duvall era AIC more than Layne Stayley era AIC. I absolutely acknowledge the moments of quality from the 90’s – there is undeniably a sense that when they got it right Stayley and co were quite a force after all. The problem with even Dirt is that it is not a complete album, like its predecessor it is just a selection of songs with a few top notch, high-quality tracks that survive as anthems to this day. There is no sense of an album of theirs from their first iteration as a group making all that much of a statement to me, more that they could just drop some great songs. I look at Facelift and immediately get lost after the first two tracks.

Although not perfect in terms of complete albums, Duvall era AIC have more consistency and as such TDPDH and Rainier Fog have been their crowning glories as a revamped group. Sticking with TDPDH, it is clear that the band were more settled when it came to writing this album in comparison to the promising yet lacking in finesse BGWTB. Duvall certainly has a unique voice and, on this record, it synchronises in harmony with Cantrell’s perfectly. Likewise, there is a greater sense of fit to the music as well. There are times when it is criminal how at ease with each other all the instruments sound on the record. Each one audible yet so well ordered and mixed in that there is a constant freedom to the sound.

As we have come to expect from previous albums Jerry Cantrell’s presence on TDPDH is obvious. As co-vocalist he is integral in giving that harmonious sound but when he goes solo (Hung on A Hook) his sultry tones add that grunge dimension to the sound. His guitar work is emotional yet controlled in the same regard. His sense of restraint to deliver a firm and yet heartfelt performance is a trait you would expect from a guitarist of his noted talent and experience. Cantrell knows how to write songs and he damn well knows how to add a genuine piece of himself into every last one of them also. His melodies singe the air as opposed to flashing bolts of lightning everywhere and leaving acrid smells in their wake.

The heaviness in TDPDH is tempered well even though it is an element that was present on BGWTB the band have captured some of that Angry Chair riff mentality and the catchiness of Man in the Box this time around. It is still an album that is steeped in rock as opposed to being just the dark emotional tirade of grunge but it has a positivity to it that suggests a band happy with their surroundings and at ease with their identity. There were snippets of this last time out (Last of My Kind) but here it just feels more organic like they have found their space and are throwing caution to the wind on where it means they fit in terms of pigeon-holes.

The follow up to this record, built firmly on the foundations laid down on this album, with Rainier Fog taking this catchy song writing and blending more seamlessly this harder edge and as such TDPDH here is a real game-changing record for AIC. It feels like they learned how to show all of their maturity and experience in a record but sound like they had an absolute blast whilst doing it.

I reviewed this one in February 2014 & after giving the album a couple of spins over the last couple of days I think my review still rings true. This is what I said seven years ago:

I recently read a pre-release interview where Jerry Cantrell said that they'd created a "unique record that's completely different from anything we ever did". Well after giving the record a few spins that comment seems like a bit of an exaggeration to be honest. From a production point of view "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" sounds very similar to "Black Gives Way To Blue" (4.5/5). In fact these songs could easily be out-takes from the same sessions.

The release of BGWTB in 2009 saw a return to the more metal sound of AIC's first couple of albums but with a distinctly clean & modern production that made it sound a little more accessible. The overall heaviness of the riffs prevented it from ever treading too close to AOR territory though. I feel they've toed a bit closer to that line at times with TDPDH. It's definitely more of a traditional grunge record & champions a lighter feel to previous albums which is not necessarily a bad thing as long as the songs stand up. And there are certainly some fantastic songs here (see "Voices", ""Lab Monkey", "Choke" or album highlight "Phantom Limb" for example) but probably nothing to rival the highlights from the previous record. The album as a whole doesn't make as immediate an impact & although the songs are fairly straight forward I found that they took more time for me get into. Given repeat listens I was singing along to quite a few of these choruses though (especially the first four tracks). They haven't held back on indulging in some long run times on some of these tracks with most songs breaching the five minute mark. There are definitely a couple of flat songs spread across the tracklisting (see "Low Ceiling" & "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" for example) & given the overall length of TDPDH they could probably have dropped a couple of tracks without too much trouble.

Vocalist William DuVall seems to be a little more prominent on this record than he was on BGWTB when he was still the new guy on the block & spent most of his time sharing the mike duties with Jerry. He's definitely got a good voice & to be honest he probably contributes to the lighter feel of the album as he's a bit more clean cut sounding than Layne Staley was.

Overall I think "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" is a strong inclusion in Alice In Chains' discography. Alice In Chains are such a class act & everything they do is worth listening to but there's enough top quality material here to leave me wondering how it's been so universally underrated. I guess it could simply be a comparative thing because it's not an instant classic like a couple of their other albums.

4/5

I debated nominating Dirt for this slot this month, but felt like the conversation would be more intriguing surrounding this record. So maybe another time...

The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here is Alice in Chains' most unabashed album of their entire careers and I enjoy every second of it! After the loss of Layne Staley, William DuVall was given the insurmountable task of trying to win back AiC fans who would inevitably call this new era of the band lesser work, and nothing other than a reunion with a Layne Staley hologram would suffice. Black Give Way to Blue was nothing more than a comeback AiC record in 2009.

TDPDH was the band making subtle changes to their sound that some may not have even noticed at first, but they helped certify DuVall as the lead vocalist of this band, while still showing respect to the legends of years past. The songwriting takes even darker turns than ever before; the brooding instrumentals play very well into the lyrical content surrounding most notably, religious denialists. I love this album because of its universality rather than the deeply personal moments that persist on Dirt and Jar of Flies.

This album was a slow burner for me as with a lot of people who have come around on it in recent years. As I realized how much was being changed, while still retaining classic Alice in Chains mannerisms, I started to love The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here. Will it ever succeed Dirt, one of my favourite records of all time? I doubt it. But it also showed me that (1.) some greats can continue to impress this many years after their classic output and (2.) William DuVall is not half assing his way through the legacy of Alice In Chains and deserves far more respect from Staley traditionalists.

9/10

These are my personal Alice In Chains preferences:

01. Dirt 5/5

02. Black Gives Way To Blue 4.5/5

03. Facelift 4/5

04. MTV Unplugged 4/5

05. The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here 4/5

06. Jar Of Flies E.P. 4/5

07. Alice In Chains 3.5/5

08. Sap E.P. 3.5/5

I enjoy all of them to be honest. I haven't heard "Live" or "Rainier Fog" as yet but I'm sure I will at some point.

I am going to shred any credibility I may formerly have had and admit that I have never listened to an Alice in Chains album. I guess that had better change then!

As I've said before, I have never listened to Alice in Chains. I was always under the impression that they were a grunge band, not that I hate grunge or anything, in fact in it's heyday I was quite a fan, but I never felt any great urge to get to know another grunge act. So before listening to this month's feature release, I thought I would familiarise myself with their seemingly most popular release, 1992's Dirt. Well, it's a damn fine record and if I had listened to it at the time of it's release it would probably have become a firm favourite - nowadays, not so much, but I still enjoyed it.

So to this month's featured contender, 2013's The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here. Now I don't know if this is a contentious opinion or not, but I have to confess that I prefer this to Dirt, probably fired by the fact that I had no emotional connection or context for the earlier album. I was kind of caught out by just how catchy TDPDH is, in much the same way as I was by a previous monthly feature, Trivium's In Waves. Now of course they are very different albums, but both have some real memorable earworms that just keep swirling around in my head and neither are of a style that I would normally listen to all that much. The accessibility of the material could have been an issue in less capable hands and some of the tracks have the potential to veer off into Foo Fighters stadium rock territory. But Jerry Cantrell's genius seems to be that he can imbue these songs with a heaviness that keeps the tracks grounded in more metal territory and so keep them out of the clutches of the Glastonbury Festival rock hipsters - the opening brace of Hollow and Lab Monkey are prime examples. There is no doubt that the band exhibit their grunge roots on virtually every track, but that metal slant ensures that no one confuses the album with some Pearl Jam or Stone Temple Pilots rehash.

I definitely envision this being one of my go-to albums when I want to resurface from the foetid darkness of whatever extreme metal pit I've been spending my time in and feel the need to reconnect to music that is just about great songs. Personally, I don't think there's a duff track on TDPDH - Hollow and Phantom Limb are the obvious standouts and, sorry Daniel, but I love the title track and Low Ceiling too, despite their alleged "flatness". A great choice for a monthly feature, I must have listened to this a dozen times this week and enjoyed it every time, so mission accomplished Saxy as far as introducing something new to at least one Academy member this month.

4.5/5

There's a lot to break down here. So much so that I listened to this on like, July 7th or something, I'm just now posting something, and I'm still not entirely sure what to say. I don't think I have the same reverence towards this that's being shown above, even though I completely get it. I think the most important distinction between The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here and something like Dirt or Jar of Flies is that this sounds incredibly mature in comparison. Most of the songs have more Alternative Rock sounding riffs with more chord strumming than hefty chug rhythms and the new vocalist keeps a somber and dark but not exactly aggressive tone going throughout the album. It doesn't have the bursting energy that the 90's Grunge scene had, but it doesn't really have to and it shows some serious evolution within the Alice In Chains sound. I think what impresses me the most is that this still sounds definitively like Alice In Chains even if the elements are a bit shuffled around. They've always had a sound that I've preferred over that of Nirvana or Stone Temple Pilots and even after all these years its still preserved in a somber and reflective feeling album that is distinctly Alice In Chains. 

That being said, something about this one doesn't exactly click with me. I'm not sure if it's because DuVall is an obvious attempt at a one-to-one Staley replacement and that doesn't sit well with me, or if at the end of the day I find TDPDH kind of boring in all honesty. Objectively I agree with Saxy about DuVall really coming into his own with this new shift in style and it sounds great, but there's still something that doesn't exactly feel right to me; maybe it's because it sounds so surface-level compared to the Alice In Chains of the past? At the same time that's a pretty terrible observation to make because wanting to hear legitimate suffering through music isn't exactly something that I'd want to promote, even if its been shown to create some of the most revered albums. Saxy's also correct in that this album is more universal in what it tries to convey and I think it's better off for it, but it leaves me wanting a bit more for some reason. 

I think TDPDH is going to be a slow, slow burner for me judging by how I've been thinking about it, trying to figure out how to put everything together for a review which obviously isn't going to happen this month, or maybe ever. I'm definitely glad that Alice In Chains went in this direction because it's objectively still uniquely them and high quality, but I think I need even more time with it to detach myself from my expectations. 

3/5