Jerry Cantrell – I Want Blood – Album Review
by Killian Laher

And if I want blood, you’ve got it… to paraphrase AC/DC.  Jerry Cantrell follows up his 2021 solo album Brighten, not with a return to Alice In Chains but with another solo album.  This time he has moved away from the easy breezy country rock of its predecessor and this is much more of a metal album.  Lots of dark, black hole tracks such as Vilified and Afterglow full of heavy riffing and creepy vocals, but not much else.

The dark, beefy rock of Off the Rails and gonzo metal of the title track contain towering guitar riffs that are as near to, for want of a better word, grunge as he’s got for years.  The album is quite effective when Cantrell and co (Duff McKagan, Rob Trujillo and many others) slow things down.  The moody Echoes of Laughter plods along agreeably while later, the closing track It Comes is a slow and brooding power ballad, believe it or not. Though it’s also the strongest track here.  Cantrell throws in a cheeky Rolling Stones album track reference (“The Ragged Company”) before the track bursts into life halfway through.

Let It Lie combines a sledgehammer-heavy riff with twisted harmonies which will delight fans of Alice In Chains.  Elsewhere, the results are a bit mixed, Held Your Tongue starts out acapella before the guitars slam in, leading to a slightly cheesy chorus of “We belong together, separate never”.

It’s a strangely sequenced album, with the better tracks towards the end.  Also, I’m not sure why this needs to exist as a Jerry Cantrell solo album as opposed to an Alice In Chains album.  Obviously, there are different personnel involved but surely these songs could have been done with his original band?

Vilified