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Alice In Chains’ Jerry Cantrell announces first solo LP in 18 years, drops first single Atone

Cantrell reunites with past collaborators Greg Puciato and Gil Sharone from The Dillinger Escape Plan and GNR bassist Duff McKagan.

Jerry Cantrell onstage

Photo: Daniel Knighton / Getty

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Alice In Chains guitarist-vocalist Jerry Cantrell has announced his first solo album in 18 years, Brighten, due out 29 October. Listen to the album’s first single Atone below.

Brighten will feature nine tracks, including a cover of Elton John’s Goodbye. It’s set to be the musician’s first full solo studio record since 2002’s Degradation Trip Volumes 1 & 2.

Cantrell tapped a number of big-name rockers to help on Brighten, including Greg Puciato and Gil Sharone from The Dillinger Escape Plan and Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses. Brighten was co-produced with Tyler Bates and Cantrell’s longtime engineer Paul Fig.

Cantrell told Rolling Stone the idea for Atone laid dormant in his head for “20-plus years” saying “sometimes it takes a while for a good idea to find its best form”.

He added: “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 also said he reached out to Elton John specifically to get his blessing to cover Goodbye. “Out of respect to Elton, I wouldn’t include it unless he said it was OK,” he said. “[Elton] 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!”

See the tracklist for Brighten here:

  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)
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