But the same could be said of just about any track on Dinosaurs, which typically lumber past the five-minute mark.
Chop it in half and you could double its impact. That song is six-and-a-half minutes long. “The devil put dinosaurs here,” DuVall sings as the guitars quake and rumble, as though the bottom were falling out of the song.
The title track is one of Alice in Chains’ most politicized songs to date, a God’s-eye-view of religious extremism in America and a quick glimpse back at the spiritual doubts that infected “Man in the Box”. The hooks sounds more insistent, the guitars grind harder, and the songwriting sounds almost extroverted at times. In retrospect, that album sounds like a warm-up for Dinosaurs, which sounds more confident and concentrated than its predecessor. In 2009, this new line-up made the tortured-but-determined Black Gives Way to Blue, which lacked the desperation of a typical comeback record. And mostly it’s due to Jerry Cantrell, the guitar player, chief songwriter, and arguably the brains behind the band for 20 years now. That’s due to new vocalist William DuVall, who approximates Staley's blared sneer but actually has more expressive range. Despite its very 1990s red jewel case and its trollable title, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here is actually a solid mainstream rock album: more inventive than it needs to be, and less self-congratulatory in its intense introspection. Even after Staley’s OD in 2002, it’s no real surprise that Alice in Chains are still around- there’s always cash in nostalgia- but it is a surprise that the band's latest album actually sounds like they're trying to move forward rather than rest on their dubious laurels.
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