Jerry Cantrell - I Want Blood
Jerry Cantrell is one of the last rock icons of this kind. He out-survived peers who came to tragic premature ends or had careers that tapered into obscurity. More importantly, however, he is a song-writer and musician par excellence who has penned some true classic rock anthems in a way nobody seems to do anymore. He delivered this, moreover, with a certain understated visage and a sound that is so highly influential but hard to copy.
This solo record is inescapably similar to latter day Alice in Chains and some of the tracks could easily have been lifted from the Black Gives Way to Blue era. It also serves as proof that Cantrell has always been the creative engine behind Alice in Chains. Opener Vilified typifies his unique signature sound that amalgamates swampy down-tuned queasiness, high-rise melody, and anguished reflection all with a hungover rock star posture. The twisted riffs are sleazy and grimy while the famous harmonised vocal drawl is both seedy and hymnal.
There are some genuine standout tracks on this record. The glistening guitar hooks and soaring melodies of Off the Rails interface with an aloof, ballsy rock gait. Songs such as this demonstrate how niftily Cantrell can distil uplifting rock soul with a twisted sordidness. Also, when it comes to lonely man’s wistful reflection, he is masterly; if you want to seek resolution for your life regrets then recline back and soack into the restrained airy rock thrum of Afterglow which evokes shadow memories of the sublime Jar of Flies era. Likewise, the splendid bluesy rock of Echoes of Laughter is an intense and clammy late-night piece of introspection with a killer hook-line and chorus.
I Want Blood is, broadly, a slowish paced and contemplative record with a brooding quality. There are exceptions to this, most notably the dusty highway rocker title track which is an overt nod to Queens of the Stone Age desert rock. The album closer, It Comes, is a nine minute pensive and moody soliloquy that photosynthesises slowly in sorrow and soul. Part helplessly disconsolate, part glowing dawn – this is why AIC and the man who is the creative force behind them are just too difficult to plagiarise. This is an intense, thoughtful record with very close DNA to Alice in Chains. That might draw criticisms that there is little to distinguish this solo work from the AIC canon …but that would also be the case if Cantrell diverged too much. This is what one would expect and hope for in Cantrell’s music: too leftfield for classic rock, too deftly rocky for grunge, not quite metal but emitting an aura that appeals to followers of these.