Alice In Chains - Rainier Fog review
| Band: | Alice In Chains |
| Album: | Rainier Fog |
| Style: | Grunge, Heavy metal |
| Release date: | August 24, 2018 |
| A review by: | RaduP |
01. The One You Know
02. Rainier Fog
03. Red Giant
04. Fly
05. Drone
06. Deaf Ears Blind Eyes
07. Maybe
08. So Far Under
09. Never Fade
10. All I Am
Nothing Alice In Chains has released or will release after their reunion will come close to being as good as their pre-breakup stuff. Nobody expects a new Alice In Chains album to hold a candle to Dirt. Now that we got that out of the way, let's try to look at Rainier Fog through its own merits.
We're getting roughly to the point where there's as much post-reunion material as there is pre-reunion. At least as far as studio albums are concerned, we're at that point already. Now they've come back to grunge Mecca of Seattle to record this new album. And with a stable lineup and sound, it's quite clear that Alice In Chains are still on the border between creating their own identity as different from being a legacy band and just that. And with The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here being slightly less critically successful than Black Gives Way To Blue, where does Rainier Fog stand?
I hope you like vocal harmonies, because, as with the previous records, there's plenty of those. And they work really well, but they're used so much that it becomes stagnant to a point and I wish we'd have more moments to hear either just DuVall or Cantrell shine. With this approach, the voices of both blend in well with each other, but this makes them quite indistinguishable and lacking a vital feel of personality. This was an issue as well on the previous two albums, and the band isn't breaking any new ground here; joining the harmonies are the droning guitars and Cantrell's signature guitar solos.
What makes this album somewhat different from its predecessors is that it sheds a bit of the lightness that they had. Remnants of it are of course still at large, like on "Fly" or "Maybe", but the doom metal undertones that they always had creep more and more to the surface, giving us songs like the opener, "The One You Know", "So Far Under" and the heaviest of all, "Drone". Rainier Fog is bleak and numb over its 50 minutes, even in its most dynamic moments. While I certainly appreciate bringing these undertones to the surface, Rainier Fog still suffers from a lack of memorability and a feeling of everything blending with itself.
For what it's worth, Rainier Fog is a good album, it sounds good and all, it makes a little effort to be different from its predecessor while also giving nods to the band's past, but Alice In Chains are just that: in chains. For a new Alice In Chains album to be great they have to choose whether to emulate their glory days or to find their own personality. A little more than a little effort.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 7 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 6 |
| Production: | 7 |
 | Written on 01.09.2018 by Doesn't matter that much to me if you agree with me, as long as you checked the album out. |
Comments
Comments: 19
Visited by: 171 users
| musclassia Staff Posts: 7621  |
Pretty solid summary of it, it's fine and all, but I'm not going to find myself coming back to it often. Suprised you didn't single out All I Am - on my first listens, it was the one song other than Drone that made me stand up and pay attention
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| RaduP CertifiedHipster Staff Posts: 9027  |
Written by musclassia on 02.09.2018 at 00:20 I'm not sure I should admit it, but I was done writing the review by the time I got to All I Am It wasn't my first listen or anything, just the one in which I wrote the review
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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| Lanthros Posts: 584 |
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7345  |
They do have their own personality. They sound unique and are instantly recognisable. Of course, this does not necessarily mean their music is always good. It is more often than not though.
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989  |
Good album, but that's about it. Score somewhere between 6 and 7 seems to be about accurate. This is admittedly the first time I've actually listened to any of their post reunion material though, are there any albums from the Duvall era that are better than this, or would you say they're all about the same quality?
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| RaduP CertifiedHipster Staff Posts: 9027 |
Written by Auntie Sahar on 02.09.2018 at 17:33 One is better, one is worst, neither by a noticeable margin
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62001  |
Does anybody still cares about this band. As some here in ms say IM, saxon must stop writing albums, be live band, I say this band must do this, even stop playing live
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| BlankFile Posts: 705 |
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Written by Bad English on 02.09.2018 at 22:41 Difference is that this band wroites loads better music than Saxon or IM nowadays.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| Grave_Digger Posts: 12 |
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| RaduP CertifiedHipster Staff Posts: 9027 |
Written by Grave_Digger on 10.09.2018 at 19:12 With all due respect, I'm glad the commenter has conveniently put this sentence at the beginning of his comment, so he saved me the trouble of reading through the rest of it.
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989 |
Written by Grave_Digger on 10.09.2018 at 19:12 Typing some lengthy comment you're probably looking for a response to but prefacing it with an implication that you didn't even bother to read all through a review to consider what the writer had to say isn't the best tactic, for future reference
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| Cynic Metalhead Ambrish Saxena Posts: 7557  |
Don't worry, Heart Collector. I read your full message. I'll tell you something - it is not worth reading.
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| Zap Posts: 3577  |
Heart Collector made a good and well articulated point and I can see how that first sentence can give an impression that the reviewer didn't really give the album a chance. Ironically his comment also states he didn't give the review a chance, because if you read the rest you know that the reviewer gives the album a fair go. "Nobody expects a new Alice In Chains album to hold a candle to Dirt. Now that we got that out of the way, let's try to look at Rainier Fog through its own merits." That alone would have made a better introduction if you ask me.
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| RaduP CertifiedHipster Staff Posts: 9027 |
Written by Zap on 11.09.2018 at 11:00 That's a fair point. I wouldn't have expected my first sentence to be a controversial one.
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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| Grave_Digger Posts: 12 |
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| Rage10000 Posts: 139 |
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| RaduP CertifiedHipster Staff Posts: 9027 |
Written by Grave_Digger on 11.09.2018 at 16:33 I wasn't trying to completely dismiss post-reunion AiC nor call them sell-outs or anything. I'm glad they are still making music of considerable quality that isn't entirely a safe rehash. My opening statement was more about how ideally, Rainier Fog shouldn't be compared to their pre-reunion stuff since the band has been kinda trying to form its own separate identity since. The rest of the review is a bit dismissive over issues like the overuse of vocal harmonies, the lack of memorability upon initial listen (this is subjective, I'm sure the album would grow on me with further listens) and the feeling of it being stuck between wanting to be its own thing and trying to live up to the legacy. I did praise the dark tone and the heavier parts, but all in all, I still feel there's unrealized potential if only AiC would either go way heavier or just stop emulating older days.
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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| Grave_Digger Posts: 12 |
Written by RaduP on 13.09.2018 at 07:12 It's a matter of personal taste but the moments in which I hear similarities with older stuff are quite rare for me - maybe it's due to production of newer albums? On Drone, for example, those higher notes sound like they would be a perfect for Layne's vocals and I also thought that the opening riff in So Far Under sounded like something you'd have heard on their self-titled album. I'm very much enjoying the vocal harmonies, though, they are one of the main reasons why I got into AIC.  I'm struggling to find bands in metal that use vocal harmonies in that manner, unfortunately. I know that this iteration of the band isn't everyone's cup of tea but I sometimes feel they are being unfairly judged against their previous work. The only part of their "old" sound that I feel is lacking is their famous acoustic work. I feel they have enough heaviness in their newer work, especially considering their musical background and influences - maybe we just have different definitions of heavy but I also never felt their old material is heavier than their new.
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