It's a decent Alice in Chains album. That's it really. Not some leap in sound that represents a new phase for the band. Just... a decent Alice in Chains album. Heck, the band has said in interviews, almost word for word, that the only real difference with this album is that “it's 12 songs we hadn't written before”. While I appreciate the self-aware lack of pretentiousness, as opposedIt's a decent Alice in Chains album. That's it really. Not some leap in sound that represents a new phase for the band. Just... a decent Alice in Chains album. Heck, the band has said in interviews, almost word for word, that the only real difference with this album is that “it's 12 songs we hadn't written before”. While I appreciate the self-aware lack of pretentiousness, as opposed to other musicians that hype up their upcoming albums way too highly, that only made me fear that this album would be passable, but dull & kinda uninspired. And for me, that's the case for some of the album & not at all for some. For example, the first 4 songs are all great melodic heavy alt-rock with a real sludge-metal feel for a lot of the time. “Stone” especially hooked me from the first listen. It's driven by an awesomely dirty riff/bassline straight out of the Dirt playbook. The partly-acoustic “Voices” is another major highlight that reminds me a lot of the Jar of Flies EP & has probably the catchiest chorus on the whole album.
You might notice that most of my compliments earlier for the better tracks were basically comparisons to the earlier stuff. That's the case for basically the whole album and in a nutshell (pun intended) I think that's where this album starts to fail for me: it's way too self-derivative. Some bands can pull off replicating their sound with each album, as long as the songs themselves are still as good & as interesting as what came before. But in my opinion, after track 4, for a majority of the time that's just not the case. Nearly every song has the same production, same tempo, same structure, same guitar tone, same sludgy feel, and sometimes with minimal payoff. Even on past albums you could say that some songs sounded different from each other, and they were memorable for different reasons. Here though, some of these 5-minute sludgefests just bleed into each other, with few if any moments to make them stand out from the rest. I think this can be attributed partially to the weird way the vocals sound on this album, which 90% of the time are extremely layered & dense. For me that can kinda take away from the personality & make the narrator seem a bit faceless.
I also have an issue with this album lyrically. Most of it is pretty generic “I'M SAD!” stuff with nothing especially moving to make it worthwhile. I don't want every one of my points to come with a comparison to the early stuff, but the reason why this strategy worked so well in that era was because it was coming from a genuinely tortured person struggling with a crippling drug addiction & mental issues. It translated in the music vividly & effectively. Then in BGWTB, the negative focus shifted towards transitions in life and, of course, mourning the loss of a dear friend & bandmate. But now what do they have to be sad or all that emotional about? It's okay to not be miserable all the time if it otherwise means becoming stale & disingenuous. And that's exactly what most of this album is: an hour-long subject matter rut. Occasionally it can work well, like on “Phantom Limb” which at least gives some great imagery. But on this album, in my opinion, that's a rare case. There actually is one spot where AiC goes beyond that area lyrically, the title track and it's the only song here that I actively dislike for reasons other than being boring. When it comes to anti-religious lyrics, since about February of last March when I heard Bad Religion's True North, I've basically been using that band as the gold standard of that kind of writing. Anti-religious lyrics can work as long as they're smart, straightforward, passionate & sincere, all while keeping it somewhat considerate of the other side of the argument. “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” is none of these things, instead living in obnoxiously smug sarcasm that does nothing but mock instead of making any real or insightful points.
The weird thing about writing this review is that it's one of those albums where you have a lot of negative stuff to say, but you still like it more than you dislike it & it can be kinda hard to get that across given how much text was devoted to each side. I'd recommend The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here for AiC fans, but not exactly with a guarantee that you'll think it's their best work. Nothing is outright terrible (even the title track sounds decent if you ignore what's being said), but for me it's a bit underwhelming & very front-loaded.
Top 5 tracks: Stone, Voices, Phantom Limb, Hollow, Pretty Done
Score: 69/100
(For a longer review go to my Facebook page That Non-Elitist Music Fan.)… Expand
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