JERRY CANTRELL – I Want Blood

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8.0

Jerry Cantrell's return as a soloist was a somewhat unexpected return: news has been awaited for a couple of years now regarding a new album under the name Alice In Chains, but without any actual update.
However, the mastermind behind the six strings has definitely not remained idle, completing a handful of tours, after having in this sense resumed a concert activity evidently blocked by the lockdown periods and having released an excellent album under his name precisely, that “Brighten” of 2021 in which our soul emerges closer to southern rock and less inclined to the sinister gait of Sabbathian memory – which has always in reality been an essential characteristic of his in terms of songwriting and expressive language.
The use of a decidedly darker and more tragic sound palette is instead taken up in the new and self-produced “I Want Blood”, whose title is already a declaration of intent and self-affirmation. Surrounded once again by friendships with a decidedly important specific weight, Cantrell creates a batch of nine bewitching, melancholy and memorable pieces for an album that can easily be considered among his most successful in an absolute sense. Among the well-known names, those of Joe Barresi stand out in co-production – already a producer for names such as Kyuss or Queen Of The Stone Age – and of Gil Sharone, ex The Dillinger Escape Plan and now Marilyn Manson's drummer, behind the drums for the occasion for most of the songs on the album in question.
Between hard rock, Americana, grunge and classic doom, “I Want Blood” is an essentially complete album from the point of view of the sounds dear to Alice In Chains fans and in general of the fringe of grunge vaguely more distant from punk and instead close to seventies psychedelia.
Above all, it is a decidedly memorable album, in which each piece is characterized by its own specific identity, while remaining well contextualized in style; It could almost be demeaning to try to extract from the tracklist the episodes that we think are the most successful, whereas all the songs included actually contribute to the success of a record that is fully centered in terms of compositional coherence, lyricism and sonic aesthetics. However, we could mention the melancholy of “Afterglow”, the rock pace of the title track or the leaden riffing of “Let It Lie” among the most specifically successful moments of “I Want Blood”, while what was said about the sense of general satisfaction that the complete experience of the album manages to confer even after multiple listens.
A further note of interest is also added by the presence of some additional collaborations, such as that of Greg Puciato (vocalist of the late The Dillinger Escape Plan) on “Echoes Of Laughter” and of Duff McKagan (Guns N' Roses) and Robert Trujillo of Metallica on the pieces not directly performed by Cantrell himself on bass; although not essential for the final rendering of the compositions, these collaborations add further value to the creation of a record that cannot go unnoticed for those who follow the exploits of Ours and Alice In Chains and for those who, more generally, have an interest in listening a rock album worthy of consideration and respect outside of mere logic of return for purely commercial purposes.
In conclusion, Jerry Cantrell manages to once again create a decidedly remarkable album which is destined to remain among the regular listeners of those who are passionate about sounds with a certainly classic flavor – given the obvious caliber of the musician in question and given the decades of his work – but at the same time timeless and imperishable. Highly recommended.