Review Summary: Darken
Almost 20 years after the release of Alice in Chains-mastermind Jerry Cantrell then last solo album, Degradation Trip, Brighten was released in October of 2021. Sure, Jerry has used his songwriting abilities for contributions here and there, including a single for the John Wick movie franchise and another single for DC's Dark Nights Metal soundtrack. However, his full involvement in Alice In Chains third iteration pretty much put a full stop to his solo ventures.
While Brighten was far from a misstep and was an enjoyable record on its own, it probably wasn't the expected follow up album to Degradation Trip, which was darker and much heavier, dealing with Layne Staley inevitable demise at the time and Cantrell's own family and drug addiction issues. The 2-disc colossus is often considered his best output outside of the early Alice In Chains albums.
I Want Blood is a much needed addition to his catalogue, closing the circle nicely and offering a stark contrast to its lighter and brighter counterpart (pun intended). Bringing, yet again, an impressive team of musicians, including Gil Sharone, Duff Mckagan, Greg Puciato and adding former collaborators Robert Trujillo and Mike Bordin to the fold, the lead singer/guitarrist fullfills the promise for a riff heavy and darker sound. “Vilified” wastes no time kicking off the album, with a faster paced drum beat and a chugging guitar riff, and also including a talkbox harkening to the classic era of Alice In Chains. You could almost hear Layne singing through some parts of the song.
The high octane agression follows in the form of both the title track and “Held Your Tongue”. The former is a catchy hard rock tune, and just as the title track of previous album Brighten, features a very immediate chorus. The latter starts off with an a capella intro, and then is joined by the rest of the band into one of the heaviest songs of the album. This particular song has a great vocal performance from Jerry (or Pusciato, specifically on the chorus) and brings to mind some of the fast paced moments of Dirt.
The ballads are not exactly absent here; “Echoes of Laughter” slows the pace down quite a bit, being one of the three songs that features acoustic guitars. This song has, in my opinion, one of the best solos of the album and closes with a very memorable and melodious portion (reminiscent of songs like “Breath on a Window” or “Low Ceiling”). The mid-tempo hard rocker “Afterglow” also features a very atmospheric intro and mellow verses. This is not to say the record lacks any of the doomy aspects of Degradation Trip. though. “Off the Rails” could have easily been featured on the aforementioned release, being the darkest sounding track of the album along with the epic closer “It Comes”. “Let It Lie” also puts the doom influence on the forefront with a razor sharp riff and a bombastic bridge. My personal highlight, though, is “Throw Me a Line”, which is a slow paced heavy but groovy song. This song pretty much exemplifies all the elements of the album combined into one.
I do have a couple of critiques; Pusciato is heavily underutilized and relegated to a background singer, and while that may be intentional, his delivery could have elevated some of the heavier moments of the album. I'm pretty sure he can pull off a few moments of focus/highlight just like Duvall has on Alice in Chains, without sacrificing Jerry's voice in the slightest. Another gripe I have is production which sounds "thin" and its very lenient on the treble. Thats not surprising on a Joe Barresi produced album, being fair, and it may serve the album to an extent since the distorted sound does “fit” the low tuned and heavy nature of the songs, but the dynamics are somewhat lost in the mix. While Jerry doesnt necessarily pulls any new tricks under his sleeve, he demostrates once again his great songwriting abilities, and that alone makes this a necessary listen to any fan of his.
