Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue CD

Black Gives Way to Blue buy CD music To its legion of fans, everything the band Tool does is an event, but the elaborate plan behind their sporadic release schedule--roughly five years, on average, between albums--is due primarily to the time and effort the band packs into each successive effort. To title their fourth album 10,000 DAYS, then, isn't as much an exaggeration as it would seem. Tool are America's most consummate mainstream perfectionists, revitalizing progressive rock to the grandeur of its '70s heyday, but updated with technocratic tension and existential dread not known to previous generations. Perhaps it's the development of more musical genres at the turn of the millennium, but it's also Tool's ability to take what is needed from each and leave the florid excesses behind, forming a seething gray core of angst and release across epic-length songs that are as accessible as they are complex. The material on 10,000 DAYS provides typically thought-provoking grist for the band's lyrical handwringing ("Vicarious" tackles reality television as the bane of culture; "Wings for Marie" is a two-part suite on the death of vocalist Maynard James Keenan's mother), and is as musically engaging as ever, finding the band at their most powerful since 1996's AENIMA. Recording information: Grandmaster, Hollywood, CA; O'Henry, Burbank, CA; The Loft, Hollywood, CA. Animation: Ray Zone. Illustrator: Alex Grey. Photographer: Travis Shin. Tool: Danny Carey, Adam Jones , Justin Chancellor, Maynard James Keenan. Audio Mixer: Joe Barresi.

Black Gives Way to Blue songs In the five years between the two releases, Metallica seem to have gotten back in touch with the raw power of their classic period, with a little help from legendary producer Rick Rubin. One listen to the 10-minute epic "Suicide & Redemption" with its mix of raw rock ferocity and complex musical development should tell you the old Metallica's back in business. Long tracks with complex structures and intricate, speedy riffs abound. Most appealing for longtime fans may be the return to the frenzied guitar solos of yore. Rubin seems to have assisted the band on a path that successfully combines power, melodicism, and pure, unadulterated metal mania, over a sonic statement that definitively proves there's nothing over-the-hill about middle-aged metal. The world at large got a fly-on-the-wall view of the creation of Metallica's 2003 album, ST. ANGER, via the documentary SOME KIND OF MONSTER, so we know they consciously tried to keep things contemporary at that time by avoiding fleet-fingered solos and eschewing the sound of the "old" Metallica. If that hoary old term "return to form" ever applied to a rock album, though, it's ANGER's follow-up, DEATH MAGNETIC. Metallica: James Hetfield (vocals, guitar); Kirk Hammett (guitar); Robert Trujillo (bass guitar); Lars Ulrich (drums).

Black Gives Way to Blue album for sale Recorded in 1992. Live Recording Personnel: Jerry Cantrell, Layne Staley (vocals, guitar); Sean Kinney (drums). Audio Mixer: Dave Jerden. Photographer: Rocky Schenck. Alice In Chains: Layne Staley, Jerry Cantrell (vocals, guitar); Michael Starr (bass); Sean Kinney (drums). Additional personnel: Tom Araya (background vocals).

Black Gives Way to Blue CD music Long before the phrase, "Seattle scene" spoke of an impact that a new generation of musicians was having on rock music, Alice in Chains was struggling to be recognized in the shadow of bands that were more focused on image than craft. On FACELIFT, the band's major label debut, Alice in Chains proved that its fusion of blues, hard rock, and gritty imagery was a force to be reckoned with. While college radio stations ate up fare like "It Ain't Like That" and "We Die Young," the song "Man in a Box" became a banner track that pushed the band into the forefront of heavy rotation on MTV and the playlists of mainstream rock radio stations. Vocalist Layne Staley's moody, dynamic vocals on "Love, Hate, Love" tell a chilling tale of a homicidal psychotic lamenting and musing over what he's done to his lover. On tracks such as "Sea of Sorrow" and "I Can't Remember," guitarist Jerry Cantrell shows equally impressive skill in Sabbath-styled riffing, blues licks, and Hendrix-influenced solos. Alice in Chains made a brash musical and lyrical statement that gave the stale era of thrash and hair metal a much-needed facelift. Recorded at London Bridge Studios, Seattle, Washington and Capitol Recording Studios, Hollywood, California. Personnel: Layne Staley (vocals); Jerry Cantrell (guitar, background vocals); Sean Kinney (drums, percussion, background vocals); Kevin Shuss, Michael Starr, Mike Starr (background vocals). Audio Mixer: Dave Jerden. Recording information: Capitol Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA; London Bridge Studios, Seattle, WA. Photographer: Rocky Schenck. Alice In Chains: Layne Staley (vocals); Jerry Cantrell (guitar); Michael Starr (bass); Sean Kinney (drums).

Black Gives Way to Blue buy CD music Some things are immune to trends, and Ronnie James Dio's golden voice is one of them. The alleged inventor of the devil-horns symbol (as it pertains to metal) had a memorable stint as the singer of Black Sabbath after St. Ozzy's departure, leaving behind two classic albums in MOB RULES and HEAVEN AND HELL. Though the rest of Sabbath has mainly focused on working with Ozzy in the 2000s, a 2007 tour with Dio whetted their appetites for a fresh collaboration as Heaven & Hell. The result, THE DEVIL YOU KNOW, stands proudly beside the band's prime material. Like anything associated with Dio, the music is unapologetically operatic, with almost every song clocking in at around or over five minutes. The singer wails his tales of darkness and mystical evil over Tony Iommi's trademark doom-inflected chords, heavy as a marble tomb and churning like a witch's cauldron. Recording information: Rockfield Studios, Monmouth, Wales. Photographer: Chapman Baehler. Personnel: Ronnie James Dio (vocals); Tony Iommi (guitar); Vinny Appice (drums). Audio Mixer: Wyn Davis.

Black Gives Way to Blue songs The release of 2009's ENDGAME brings with it a startling realization: if first-generation thrash metal fans had been polled about which of the genre's "Big Four" -- Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth -- would prove to be the most resilient and consistently prolific over the next quarter century, the only sure-fire consensus would probably have been "well, anyone but Megadeth!" And yet, 12 studio albums and 150-plus songs later -- more than any of the other three have managed -- that's exactly what's come to pass. The group's second release for Roadrunner, whose title apparently refers to "coming full circle" rather than any sort of goodbye, finds the latest iteration of Megadeth-- debuting new guitarist Chris Broderick(ex-Nevermore, Jag Panzer)--working primarily within their technical thrash comfort zone (think PEACE SELLS through RUST IN PEACE), with only a few latter-day elements and rare experimental diversions. As such, deceptively simple guitar-shredding master classes like "This Day We Fight!," "1,320" (surprisingly, written about "funny car" racing), and first single "Headcrusher" are cut from the same bloody cloth as "Wake Up Dead" and "Set the World Afire," while politicized rants such as "44 Minutes," "Bite the Hand That Feeds," and the title cut recall old stalwarts like "Peace Sells" and "Holy Wars." Lyricist: Dave Mustaine. Personnel: Dave Mustaine (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, piano); Chris Broderick (guitar, acoustic guitar); James LoMenzo (bass guitar); Shawn Drover (drums, percussion); Chris Rodriguez, Chris Clancy, Chris Clancy (background vocals). Audio Mixer: Andy Sneap. Illustrator: John Lorenzi. Photographer: Ross Halfin.