Double J Music
Out Now
In my opinion, there is no other name as synonymous with the dark side of grunge as the one and only Jerry Cantrell of metal’s closest grunge cousins Alice In Chains. His riffs are mistakenly dark and heavy, but always catchy and driving. And his vocal performances, although mostly harmonies, stand on their own beside the lead vocals of William DuVall and of the much loved and lost legendary vocal performances of Layne Staley (RIP).
This review is not about Alice In Chains though, this is all about Jerry and his latest solo release I Want Blood. This is Jerry’s 5th solo attempt, or 4th if you consider Degradation Trip Volume 1 & 2 as an extended release of Degradation Trip, which is exactly what it is. Let’s not split hairs though because in all honesty I’ve probably only ever listened to a few tracks from his previous release Brighten from just a few years back. I’m sure this will be good though, because the man can play, sing, and write one hell of a song.
A stuttered drumbeat, and short tom fill launch the album into Vilified, and it doesn’t take very long for a classic Jerry style riff to take over the track. And then Jerry hits with those unmistakable vocals. This is exactly what I expected, and I’m already far from disappointed. So grungy, so sludgy, so dark … so good!
Off The Rails starts with a standalone guitar melody, which is soon joined by Jerry and the band. And just who is the band? I have no idea, because I didn’t seem to actually get a press release, I just got a link to the album. I can’t complain though because at least this review will be based purely off my thoughts rather than what can sometimes be misleading hype. It didn’t grab me initially this song, but as the guitar melody weaves in and out of the track, it drags me in with it. When it gets there, it gets there, and it even unexpectedly rocks out a little towards the end of the track.
This next one’s a bit different. An Afterglow of its predecessors, even. It’s a bit of a slower track, well slower feeling anyway, and a little less dark. Let’s just say nice, it’s nicer. Ok, it’s still a little dark, the brighter side of dark.
The title track I Want Blood is up next, and it kicks off with a dirty bass line which soon focuses into an upbeat rock song. When the chorus hits, the guitars and vocals fill the mix with melody. I wasn’t actually expecting something so upbeat, but here we are. It’s kind of got a bit of a punk edge to it, but also maintains a certain degree of pop sensibility.
Oh no, it’s that dreaded acoustic guitar that usually spells ballad. This just might be a little too dark for that though. Ballads are usually happy love songs, or soppy love songs, or songs of lost love, and this doesn’t sound like a love song. Unless of course, you are writing a love song from a dystopian wasteland. Hang on, it might even be exactly that, it sure does sound that way.
Throw me a Line kicks up the pace again a bit with another classic Jerry riff. The guy just knows how to jam out a thumping riff, time after time without the need for someone to throw him a line. Here he is though, asking us to “Throw Me a Line”. A bass line, a vocal line, or maybe just a line? I’m not too sure, but he’s happy for it some other time.
I love a good old dirty bend on the drop tuned D string. I’m not sure that’s the tuning, I’m just taking a completely uneducated guess. It may be lower, it may be a C. Either way, it unsettles me, the way that Dirt did back in the day with its dirty heroin vibe. This song would have sat well on that album, but we’ll just have to Let It Lie here because that’s where it is.
You should have Held Your Tongue, but Jerry didn’t as he introduced this next track acapella. It kind of has a weird vibe like that masked band of ghouls with the Papa Erectus dude, or whatever his name is. You know, that heavy without kind of being heavy vibe? This is heavier than that other pop band though, and as the song progresses additional layers of guitars begin to push through the track and thicken up the overall sound and tone.
This last track is 6 and a half minutes, which scares me a little. That’s probably about 3 minutes longer than a song needs to be in 2024. Scrap that, anything longer than 7 seconds now means the start of a new Tik Tok video, and I’ve just gone through 11 of them waiting for the intro to finish and the song to actually start. This is a real fucking slow one, which should give me some time to pick up on the lyrics, but all I’ve caught is something about the record company. Oh, that just picked up a bit all of a sudden, right in the middle of the song. I’ll tap out here, though and let you experience the rest of this all by yourself.
Well, it’s not the strongest collection of songs by Jerry, but it’s still pretty damn good, and I’ll be giving it a few more listens. You should give it a crack too!
