10 Best William DuVall Era Alice In Chains Songs
Alice in Chains mark two has been successful despite the odds being stacked against them.
The legendary Alice in Chains are inarguably one of the most important bands in all of rock music since their 1990s heyday. Much like their contemporaries, they have endured tragedy with the loss of their lead vocalist Layne Staley in 2002.
At the time of Layne's death it felt unlikely we would ever see a group under the name of Alice in Chains perform again. Fast forward to 2006 and we saw the group reform with William DuVall. There was no grand plan for creating new music, they just wanted to honour their friend. The new iteration of the band continued to perform and toured on a global scale. Rumours quickly started to swirl about new music from the grunge icons. In October 2008, the band formally announced the recording of a new album with Nick Raskulinecz taking on production duties.
In 2009, Black Gives Way to Blue was released and it was deemed a triumphant and unlikely comeback by critics and fans alike. In the time since, AiC released two more records filled with career-best tracks. Here are some of the highlight tracks so far from the alt-metal titans second run in the limelight.
10. A Looking In View
A Looking in View marked the return of Alice in Chains and their debut recording with William DuVall on co-lead vocalist duties. This bombastic slab of metal returned AiC to the consciousness of the rock and metal community in a big and loud way.
This song is certainly one of their heaviest. The drums, bass, and guitar work in sync to deliver a battering intro which gives way to the crushing riffs of metal god Jerry Cantrell. His riffs here are at their simplest and most crushing and the influence of Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath is undeniably noticeable.
One of the biggest talking points around this song is that the new singer DuVall is relegated to mostly backing duties. Cantrell takes the lead on A Looking in View with his soothing-yet-eerie vocal, interspliced with impressive screams from DuVall. The song is also curiously lacking a solo which drags out the already-lengthy song.
Despite it's long runtime (7:06) it remains one of the most important tracks of Alice in Chains' second coming.