Jerry Cantrell’s highly-anticipated new album, I Want Blood, arrives on Friday, with one final sneak peek available now, with the release of the album’s title track HERE.
“There’s a confidence to this album,” Cantrell explains. “I think it’s some of my best writing and playing and certainly some of my best singing. There are large chunks of this record where I felt like my face was pressed to the ceiling of my abilities, operating at the top of my capacity.”
The four-minute-plus track opens with a menacing bass line from Duff McKagan, accompanied by Mike Bordin’s building drumbeat, followed by Cantrell’s ominous first words… “I Want Blood.” The song was co-produced, as the album was, by Cantrell and Joe Barresi (Tool, Queens of the Stone Age, Melvins).
Cantrell has previously shared two tracks from the album. The first, “Vilified,” was featured in an extensive interview with Rick Beato, where Cantrell discussed its use of the talkbox, calling back to his earlier Alice In Chains releases. The second preview, “Afterglow,” was praised by Revolver, who feature Cantrell on their current cover, as “anxiety-stirring” and “eerie,” while Metal Hammer simply called it “brilliant.” A haunting video directed by award-winning photographer and filmmaker Matt Mahurin accompanied the song’s release, which Mahurin described as “a welcome fever dream that I was grateful to lure out of my mind’s eye.”
I Want Blood was recorded at Barresi’s JHOC Studio in Pasadena, Calif., and features contributions from McKagan, Bordin, Robert Trujillo (Metallica), Greg Puciato (Better Lovers, ex-Dillinger Escape Plan), Gil Sharone (Team Sleep, Stolen Babies), and Lola Colette.
A North American tour will be announced soon. Ahead of that, Cantrell plays a sold-out, one-off show at Pappy & Harriet’s on the eve of the album’s release, followed by a brief South American tour, including a stop at Fauna Primavera.
