Joe Hughes posted a written review for Alternative Nation of Alice In Chains’ new album Rainier Fog last week, and now Lauryn Schaffner has posted a video review for Alternative Nation. In the review, Lauryn is critical of several songs on the album, criticizing how William DuVall’s voice is drowned out by the mix and music and boring song structures, though she does praise standout tracks.
When discussing “Drone” she criticized the length of certain songs.
“I once again think that this song drags on for way too long. I think if you are going to tackle a six and a half minute or seven minute song it has to be done in a way like Guns N’ Roses ‘Civil War’ where there is a lot of variation throughout the song, and it sounds different in different parts. It goes from heavy to light, because if the song just keeps repeating the same verse chorus or entire thing for 7 minutes, it starts to get very boring.
Unfortunately, I think that is a recurring theme on this album. The songs are just dragged out. If they were maybe a minute, or 45 seconds shorter, I think that a lot of them would be better than they are, just because it would be easier to stay focused on them.”
She had the same criticism of “Deaf Ears Blind Eyes.”
“Once again, we get a pretty monotonous vocal delivery, until you get to the end of the chorus where he starts to pick up his range a bit. Honestly, I hate to sound like a broken record, but for a lot of these songs, there is not a whole lot to say because they all kind of follow that dragged out, drowned out, boring sounding theme.”
Lauryn did praise “The One You Know,” “So Far Under,” “Never Fade,” and “All I Am.” She said that “So Far Under” recaptured the magic of heavy Alice In Chains.
“I think that the beginning couple of songs and the ending couple of songs are the strong points, whereas the middle is kind of just blah. You kind of want to keep everybody engaged, if they get bored in the middle, they might not listen until the end. I think that the heavier and angrier songs were in the beginning, while the nostalgic and more emotional songs are at the end.”
