“Your Decision” is the new single off of the hugely successful album, Black Gives Way To Blue, which entered Billboard’s Top 200 Albums Chart at No. 5, with first-week sales exceeding 126,000 copies.

The band are currently in the middle of a European tour, and will be touring North America in the new year.

North American tour dates are as follows:

Dec. 11 Las Vegas, NV The Joint (KXTE radio show)
Dec. 12 Los Angeles, CA Gibson Amphitheatre (KROQ Acoustic Xmas)
Feb. 2 Vancouver, BC Orpheum Theatre
Feb. 4 Seattle, WA Paramount Theatre
Feb. 6 Salem, OR Salem Armory
Feb. 11 Oakland, CA Fox Theatre
Feb. 17 Phoenix, AZ Dodge Theatre
Feb. 19 Denver, CO Fillmore
Feb. 21 Kansas City, MO Midland
Feb. 22 St. Louis, MO Pageant
Feb. 23 Louisville, KY Louisville Palace
Feb. 25 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle
Feb. 27 Myrtle Beach, SC House of Blues
Mar 1 Nashville, TN Municipal Auditorium
Mar 2 Charlotte, NC Fillmore
Mar 3 Washington, DC DAR Constitution Hall
Mar 5 Richmond, VA The National
Mar 6 Mashantucket, CT Foxwoods
Mar 8 New York, NY Terminal 5
Mar 12 Atlantic, City, NJ Borgata
Mar 13 Philadelphia, PA Tower Theatre
Mar 14 Boston, MA Orpheum
Mar 16 Montreal, QC Metropolis
Mar 17 Toronto, ONT Sound Academy
Mar 19 Detroit, MI Fillmore State Theatre
Mar 20 Chicago, IL Aragon Ballroom
Mar 21 St. Paul, MN Roy Wilkens Auditorium

Post from: Metal Martyr

“With the Alice In Chains app, we wanted to represent every song on Black Gives Way To Blue as an interactive and immersive experience,” says Jeff Zakim, Senior Director, Global Digital Marketing, EMI Music. “We achieved that with the custom-designed Interactive Tracks. The interactivity is furthered by giving fans the ability to share, comment and connect across Fan Wall posts, email, Facebook and Twitter.”

Among the songs featured on the app, which will be available in most major markets, is lead single “Check My Brain,” which continues to hold the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Top Rock Songs Chart. Fueled by the hit single, Black Gives Way To Blue entered Billboard’s Top 200 Albums Chart at No. 5, with sales exceeding 126,000 copies.

Black Gives Way To Blue is available now.

[image: Total Assault]

Post from: Metal Martyr

Discussing the title track, Cantrell tells Hetfield and Ulrich,

“It’s a really intense song, and a really open-hearted song to Layne and the experience that we went through. Facing up to all of that stuff, and owning all the good, and owning all the bad, and moving forward together. It was a lot of big steps… things were pretty black for us. It’s pretty literal to that, and things are starting to get a little lighter.”

Keep checking back in the coming weeks for parts 2 and 3 of this classic interview.

Check out part one here!

[image: Total Assault]

Post from: Metal Martyr

After a performance on Conan O’Brien on October 30th, the band is headed to Europe for a headlining tour.

Tour Dates are as follows:

Date City Venue

Oct. 22 San Antonio, TX Bone Bash @ AT&T Center

Oct. 23 Grand Prairie, TX KEGL Freakers Ball @ Nokia Theatre

Oct. 24 Houston, TX Buzzfest @ Woodlands Pavilion

Nov. 12 Glasgow, Scotland Barrowland

Nov. 13 Birmingham, UK Birmingham Academy

Nov. 14 Manchester, UK Manchester Academy

Nov. 16 London, UK The Forum

Nov. 17 London, UK The Forum

Nov. 19 Tilburg, Holland 013

Nov. 20 Antwerp, Belgium Trix Zaal

Nov. 21 Weisbaden, Germany Schlachthof

Nov. 23 Dortmund, Germany FZW

Nov. 24 Prague, Czech Rep. Lucerna

Nov. 25 Warsaw, Poland Stodola

Nov. 27 Budapest, Hungary Petofi Csarnok

Nov. 29 Vienna, Austria Gasometer

Nov. 30 Munich, Germany Thearterfabrick

Dec. 2 Milan, Italy Alcatraz

Dec. 3 Fribourg, Switzerland Fri-Son

Dec. 4 Paris, France Bataclan

Dec. 6 Nottingham, UK Rock City

Dec. 7 London, UK Brixton Academy

[image: Total Assault]

Post from: Metal Martyr

Don’t forget to enter the Alice in Chains guitar giveaway when you finish watching the video. One lucky fan will receive a G&L Rampage Jerry Cantrell Signature model guitar signed by the band! Just click the banner below to enter!

Post from: Metal Martyr

To celebrate today’s release of Black Gives Way To Blue, Metal Martyr has teamed up with Alice in Chains and Total Assault to give one fan a chance to win a brand new guitar. Not just any guitar, of course, but a G&L Rampage Jerry Cantrell Signature model signed by the band!

Entering is simple, just click on the banner at the top of this post, enter your birthday in the form near the bottom of the page then enter your name and email address, and you’re in!

From Total Assault:

In late summer of 2008, at the suggestion of longtime friend/Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, Alice In Chains met with producer Nick Raskulinecz to talk about the possibility of collaborating on a new album.

“I went to the studio where they’d been working on demos,” recalls the producer, whose credits include Foo Fighters, Rush, Deftones. “We stayed outside and just talked for a couple of hours. After the ice was broken, they brought me inside to hear some music. The first track started playing and I was immediately hooked—the riff was so killer, so catchy and so heavy, and when the vocals kicked in, I looked at Jerry (Cantrell, Alice In Chains’ guitarist/vocalist) and said, ‘I don’t need to hear anything else—I’m in.’ I was just blown away.”

By early fall, the band and producer had hunkered down at Grohl’s Studio 606 in Northridge, CA, and were hard at work on Alice In Chains’ first new studio release in more than 10 years.

Production eventually moved to the famed Henson Studios in Hollywood, and by spring of 2009 the band emerged with 11 electrifying songs about faith and perseverance. They titled the album Black Gives Way To Blue after the song of the same name, a heart-stirring tribute to Layne Staley, their brother and vocalist who passed away in 2002.

“I’m really proud of that song,” says Cantrell, who sings on the track (and shares lead vocal duties throughout the record). “It’s about facing up to the bad stuff and continuing to walk forward and live a life.”

The song features a special guest appearance by Elton John on piano.

“We were thinking about adding piano to the track and a friend suggested we call Elton,” recalls Cantrell. “I remember laughing and saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll get right on that.’ But I decided it was worth trying and wrote him an email explaining what that song means to us—that it’s a real, raw openhearted song for Layne. We sent him the track and got a call shortly after saying he thought it was beautiful and that he wanted to play on it. He was finishing his ‘Red Piano’ run in Vegas, so we flew there and hung out for a few hours. Walking into a studio and seeing the sheet music for that song on Elton’s piano made it meaningful on so many different levels. The whole experience was pretty magical.”

The album’s genesis can be traced back to January of 2005, when drummer Sean Kinney called Cantrell and bassist Mike Inez about getting together for a benefit show to raise money for tsunami relief. It was the first time in nine years that the three had performed together and following the loss of Staley, was the first in a series of little steps toward hope and healing.

“After that we started talking about how we could maybe do another show,” recalls Kinney. “Everyone was comfortable with the idea, so we decided to take another step.”

Enter William DuVall, a gifted singer and guitarist from Atlanta who had previously worked with Comes with the Fall and as part of Jerry Cantrell’s touring band for his solo work. As live audiences discovered, DuVall brings a sound and stage presence all his own, and when DuVall and Cantrell blend their voices—as Cantrell and Staley did so often—singing together over the rhythms of Kinney and Inez, there could be little doubt that the spirit of Alice In Chains was once again alive and well.

“To his credit, Will never tried to do a karaoke version of the past,” says Kinney. “It’s not easy to find your place in a pre-existing dynamic, but he did. He puts his all into it and it fits.”

“I’ve joined a group that has a strong identity and a strong legacy,” says DuVall. “Nobody wants to, in any way, disrespect or sully that legacy. You want to add to it.”

And it was while on the road that the quartet opened itself up to the idea of writing new material.

“On tour we jammed pretty much every day,” recalls Cantrell. “Cool riffs would come up and we’d record them backstage and in dressing rooms. By the time we got home from the tour, we had a disc full of ideas. Eventually we wound up with a body of work and started thinking about taking yet another step.”

“There was no master plan,” adds Inez. “Everything felt right, so we kept moving forward. The whole process was very organic.”

“If we had gone through all of it and felt that it didn’t live up musically to the legacy of the work we’d done before, then we would’ve shelved it,” says Cantrell. “We would’ve known for ourselves that this is the end, and that would’ve been cool. But that didn’t happen. You ask yourself questions like, is this record something positive to add to the catalog? Is it worthy? And the answer is yes, it is. But you don’t know that until you go through the process. We all busted our asses and have been rewarded with a record that exceeds our own expectations.

In the end, Cantrell explains, Black Gives Way To Blue is an album that reflects survival for Alice In Chains. “And,” he says, “I think survival is something to celebrate.”

Enter the contest!

[image: Total Assault]

Post from: Metal Martyr

Here’s the catch: On Thursday 9/24 (that’s today, people!), a pair of tickets can be found in Hollywood where the stars are immortalized. The man in black will be holding a package at the commemoration of a certain star who lent a hand on the title track from AIC’s new album. He will be there at 8pm sharp, and the first person to arrive and ask will be given the package. BE CAREFUL: if you are seen within eyeshot of that spot before exactly 8pm, you will not be able to take the tickets! See you there!

This is the 2nd scavenger hunt out of 3. Won, the winner of the first hunt, received a prize of tickets and VIP passes to AIC’s performance at the KROQ lunch with Kat Corbett on 9/29! Check out a video of Won here:

Black Gives Way To Blue drops 9/29.

[image: Total Assault]

Post from: Metal Martyr

Alice in Chains are preparing to release Black Gives Way To Blue on September 29th, and are now giving fans a sneak peek at each track from the album here. Black Gives Way To Blue has been praised by Revolver for its “dense tapestry of heavy guitars and soaring melodies” and Reuters wrote “the heavy guitars, submerged vocals and thunderous rhythm section assures fans that the band has lost none of its menace.”

Check out the sampler here:

After a string of sold out shows in the U.S. Alice in Chains will embark on a UK/European tour starting in November.

Nov 12 – Glasgow, UK – Barrowland
Nov 13 – Birmingham, UK – Academy
Nov 14 – Manchester, UK - Academy
Nov 16 – London, UK - Forum
Nov 17 – London, UK – Forum
Nov 19 – Tilburg, HOL - 013
Nov 20 – Antwerp, BEL – Trix Zaal
Nov 21 – Weisbaden, GER - Schlachthof
Nov 23 – Dortmund, GER - FZW
Nov 24 – Prague, CZE - Lucerna
Nov 25 – Warsaw, POL – Stodola
Nov 27 – Budapest, HUN - Petofi Csarnok
Nov 29 – Vienna, AUT - Gasometer
Nov 30 – Munich, GER - Thearterfabrik
Dec 2 – Milan, ITA - Alcatraz
Dec 3 – Fribourg, SWI - Fri-son
Dec 4 – Paris, FRA - Bataclan

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Go check it out!

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Post from: Metal Martyr