When it was recently revealed that Alice in Chains had put the finishing touches on their sixth full-length album, the news was greeted with a certain amount of surprise-especially in light of the fact that nobody even knew they were working on new music at all. But as guitarist and co-vocalist Jerry Cantrell explains to Guitar World, "It's not that we were keeping it a secret-we just didn't want to say a whole lot about it until we had something to say. And we certainly have something to say with this one. It's a fucking strong record."
Cantrell is speaking to Guitar World from L.A., where the as-yet-untitled record is being mixed by Joe Barresi (Tool, Queens of the Stone Age). He's relieved to be through the recording process but admits with a laugh that "I'm still in the last few weeks of anxiety about screwing up this record. The nitpicky and manic part of me keeps saying, "We're not done yet! But we're almost there. The finish line's in sight."
The road to get to this point has been a long and winding one. The band?which also includes co-vocalist and guitarist William DuVall, bassist Mike Inez and drummer Sean Kinney?first convened last year at Studio X in Seattle to lay down basic tracks with producer Nick Raskulinecz. According to Cantrell, it was the first time Alice in Chains had recorded in Seattle in more than 20 years, since tracking their 1995 self-titled album at the same facility back when it was known as Bad Animals. ?It was cool to be back, because the studio is a part of our history,? Cantrell says, then laughs. ?And Seattle?s always great?in the summer, anyways.?