ALICE IN CHAINS will enter the studio in October to begin recording its first all-new studio effort since 1995's self-titled third album. According to an online posting by The Baldy whose job is "to travel the world with ALICE IN CHAINS and send photos, videos and blog entries back to [the webmasters] at AliceInChains.com" "the guys gathered in a rehearsal studio in North Hollywood for the last few days of July and the first few days of August, and began running through the new material and shaking off the rust. After four days of going through the songs alone, the producer for the upcoming record joined the guys and they spent another three days polishing and spit-shining the songs together. A lot was accomplished in that week, and everyone is eager to move forward."
Before the band begins recording, the guys will head over to Peoria, Arizona to join their good friends DEFTONES at KUPD's End of Summer Scorcher on September 20. After the concert, the band will also spend a few more days in pre-production rehearsals working on material before commencing the actual tracking process.
In a spring 2008 interview with The Pulse of Radio, ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist Jerry Cantrell confirmed that he, bassist Mike Inez, drummer Sean Kinney and new singer William DuVall have been writing songs for months, but explained that they're not rushing to start recording. "We've been working about the last four months, and there's a good bulk of music and a good body of work so far, and we're having fun, and you know, we're taking our time and trying to figure out where William fits in and where we need to step up, and I have all the confidence in the world in the guys," he said. "The most important thing to me is that we're all together and, you know, it's been a tough and painful experience at times, but it's been very rewarding at the same time."
ALICE IN CHAINS officially regrouped in early 2006 after a 10-year absence with DuVall stepping in for late frontman Layne Staley, who died in 2002.
The group did its own headlining tour in the summer and fall of 2006, followed by a 2007 co-headlining jaunt with VELVET REVOLVER.
