Album Review: Rainier Fog by Alice in Chains

Consider Rainier Fog as something as a homecoming for Alice in Chains. Named after the heavy mist that comes rolling down from nearby Mount Rainier, the album finds Alice in Chains recording in Seattle for the first time since the group reunited in 2008 with William DuVall replacing the late Layne Staley as lead vocalist. Alice in Chains are aware of the significance of their return to Seattle, the place where they formed and rose to fame, so they wrote a tribute to all of their compatriots in the grunge scene, but that title track obscures how the album as a whole feels as if this incarnation of the band is exceedingly comfortable in its own skin.

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It's been half a decade since the last Alice in Chains record was released, but the band have churned out yet another masterful slab of sludgy, bluesy rock with their sixth full-length, Rainier Fog. While the record captures everything Alice in Chains fans have come to expect, it manages to escape the washed up and bland feeling so many classic rock bands fall into at this point in their career.   They kick things off with heavy-handed sludge rock jam "The One You Know," delivering possibly one of the band's heaviest songs ever. The band ….

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The Lowdown: Twelve years into his career with Alice in Chains, it's time to stop calling singer William DuVall the new guy. The band's second chapter has already proven to be successful with their two previous albums, 2009's Black Gives Way to Blue and 2013's The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, and the grunge heroes deliver another solid effort on their latest disc, Rainier Fog. Jerry Cantrell and company aren't exactly breaking new ground with the record, once again offering up their signature brand of vocal harmonies and droning guitars -- but that's what they do and they do it well.

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