Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell Drops New Song ‘Atone’ With Duff McKagan + More
Alice in Chains singer-guitarist Jerry Cantrell has dropped a new solo song called “Atone,” which features Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan, former Dillinger Escape Plan frontman Greg Puciato and drummer Gil Sharone. He’s also announced his upcoming new album, Brighten, which will be out in the fall.
The western-tinge and galloping beat of “Atone” may sound a far cry from anything Cantrell has released before, but once you arrive at the chorus, a snarling guitar lick and his signature vocal melodies make it quite reminiscent of an Alice in Chains track.
Fittingly, the accompanying video was shot in the desert lands of Joshua Tree National Park, and the latter scenes of the video were shot in a studio with McKagan, Puciato and Sharone.
Check out “Atone” below.
“As a fan of Ennio Morricone scores and Sergio Leone movies, it’s got a bit of that outlaw vibe, with a cool psycho hillbilly stomp,” Cantrell said in a statement [via Rolling Stone]. “It’s been kicking around in my head for like 20-plus years, haunting me. Sometimes it takes a while for a good idea to find its best form. Such was the case with ‘Atone.’”
Cantrell put out his first solo album Boggy Depot in 1998 while Alice in Chains were on a hiatus, and then Degradation Trip Volumes 1 and 2 followed a few years later in 2002, which served as a tribute to the late Layne Staley.
Brighten will be Cantrell’s first studio album since then, and he describes it as an “old ’70s record.” There are nine tracks total, and it closes off with a cover of Elton John’s “Goodbye,” which John himself offered praise for.
“Out of respect to Elton, I wouldn’t include it unless he said it was OK. He’d played piano on ‘Black Gives Way to Blue,’ which I wrote for Layne, so I reached out to Elton, he listened to it, and told me ‘You should absolutely use it.’ I got the signoff by the man himself. I couldn’t think of a better way to close the record!” Cantrell enthused.
See the track listing for Brighten toward the bottom of the page.
Jerry Cantrell, “Atone”
Jerry Cantrell, Brighten Track Listing
1. “Atone”
2. “Brighten”
3. “Prism of Doubt”
4. “Black Hearts and Evil Done”
5. “Siren Song”
6. “Had To Know”
7. “Nobody Breaks You”
8. “Dismembered”
9. “Goodbye” (Elton John cover)