Alice In Chains has released a new single, A Looking In View, via their website, www.aliceinchains.com – rock on over there now to download it for free, in return for signing up to their mailing list. Small price to pay, methinks. The track is from the forthcoming album ‘Black Gives Way To Blue’ which is due for release on September 29. CLICK HERE to preorder the album from Amazon.com.

So what do you think of the track? Here are a few thoughts, in dot points because they’re fun.

• Huge guitar tone from Jerry Cantrell. It reminds me of his sound on Dirt but, I dunno, bigger. More body and oomph. Something about the pick attack reminds me of Sepultura’s ‘Against’ CD, which is a kinda weird comparison, but there it is.

• Big production with lots of overdubs and audio candy. This shouldn’t really be a surprise since AIC’s best stuff was heavily layered.

• One thing this song does is once again remind me that Jerry’s vocals are a huge part of the Alice In Chains sound. His role had gradually increased during the band’s first, Layne Staley-led incarnation, to the point where now Jerry and William DuVall seem to be sharing the lead vocalist slot equally.

• Speaking of Duvall, he seems to be purposefully using a Staley-like vibrato in a few spots, but his voice is more nasal than Staley’s. I quite like that he’s not trying too hard to sound like Layne, but at the same time isn’t denying what a huge part Layne played in the AIC sound.