It took Jerry Cantrell almost twenty years to return to his ‘solo’ career, probably busy reforming Alice in Chains between Degradation Trip in 2002 and Brighten in 2021. So we were surprised to hear of the arrival of I Want Blood, just three years after its predecessor, but we were also a little apprehensive: as much as we adore Jerry and have the utmost respect for him, his overly sunny Brighten didn't leave us with an indelible memory. Surrounded by Gil Sharone (Stolen ‘you guys come back whevener you like' Babies, Team Sleep) and Mike Bordin (Faith no More) on drums, Robert Trujillo (Metallica) and Duff McKagan (Guns'n'Roses) on bass, Greg Puciato (ex-The Dillinger Escape Plan) and Lola Colette on backing vocals and harmonies, Cantrell has a solid gang sharing the album's tracks.
With a name like I Want Blood, hopes are high and the black artwork underlines a return to more darkness. So much the better. Vilified is reassuring from the outset: Cantrell's voice has lost none of its magic, the riffs are snarling, oozing restrained anger and crushing overwhelm. There's no doubt about it, but here's further proof that Alice in Chains mostly is Jerry Cantrell: the same sticky, slimy guitars that are so much fun to get tangled up in. The same quicksand of spleen that weighs down the groove of grimy rock. Cantrell says: ‘I may not be the broken, terrified young man I was at the time of Dirt, but dark clouds still follow me’.
Wicked and menacing, I Want Blood regularly recalls the mood of Degradation Trip, with an extra touch of maturity. When the pace eases, it's not to reassure: Afterglow, more than a clearing of the skies, has an air of renunciation about it, without the sinister overtaking the sense of catchiness. When, towards the middle of the track, Cantrell seems to be answering himself, the chills are not far away. This survivor of Seattle's grunge scene allows himself to be more incisive here than on Brighten, of course, but also more biting than with Alice in Chains, in the image of a hard-hitting title track.
And yet, as always, it's in the balance that we prefer him. In his mastery of nuance, in the way he combines scratchy riffs with crushing despair, in the combination of apathy and explosion, in that bittersweet, vaguely hallucinatory haze, Jerry Cantrell is at the top of his game. His soul crawls and haunts every nook and cranny of I Want Blood, and tracks like It Comes and Let it Lie do indeed conjure up thick black clouds in which to bask, sheltered from the slightest ray of light. More homogeneous, more focused and coherent than Degradation Trip, perhaps at the risk of forgetting to breathe at times, I Want Blood is arguably Cantrell's best work since Alice in Chains' masterful Black Gives Way to Blue in 2009.
