10 Rock Bands That Saved Their Careers With One Album
6. Black Gives Way to Blue - Alice in Chains
There was never really a point in Alice in Chains continuing on past 1996. After going on a handful of shows to tour for their self titled record, it was clear that Layne Staley was going to lose his battle with heroin addiction, bringing the glory days of the band to a close. The final nail in the coffin would have probably been the day that Layne passed away, but something funny happened when the band decided to come together one last time.
Bringing in William DuVall from the band Comes With the Fall to fill out Layne's parts, songs started to be written on the road, which planted the seeds for possibly making that big step to making another album. Though Black Gives Way to Blue is still kickass from start to finish, you can still feel Layne's loss on the record, starting from the first lines in All Secrets Known where Jerry Cantrell says that there's no going back. This isn't a record for moping though, and the rest of the band came to prove they could still hold their own, balancing the heavy stuff like Check My Brain with more mellow acoustic cuts like When the Sun Rose Again.
And DuVall is far more than just a hired hand on this record, blending with Jerry just like Layne did when he needs to while also serving up some real power behind his voice on songs like Last of My Kind. The first iteration of Alice ended with a lot of pain, and this was the record where we saw the veterans of the band still standing.