Full Review by The Riff Report Blog – July 5, 2025
Stage: Back To The Beginning Main Stage
Band: ALICE IN CHAINS (USA)
Time: Twilight. Between shadow and scream. 🌘
🖤 “DOWN IN A HOLE, FEELIN’ SO SMALL…” – ALICE IN CHAINS LURED BIRMINGHAM INTO THE DARKNESS 🕳️
When the sun dipped behind Villa Park and the stage lights glowed blood red, something shifted in the air. The crowd – still buzzing from the day’s chaos – fell into a reverent hush. The kings of the Seattle sound, Alice in Chains, had arrived. 🕷️
And what followed? A dark, hypnotic, sludge-laced sermon that bled with emotion, pain, and pure, raw riffage. This was less a gig and more a ritual. One that left the whole crowd spiritually ruined in the best way possible.
🧱 SETLIST: A MONUMENT TO MELANCHOLY & METAL
- Again
- Check My Brain
- Them Bones 💀
- Dam That River
- Man in the Box (still hits like a sledgehammer to the soul)
- The One You Know
- Grind
- Nutshell (mass singalong, full-body goosebumps)
- No Excuses
- Down in a Hole
- Rainier Fog
- Angry Chair
- Would?
- Rooster (tears. absolute tears.) 🐓
A perfect blend of old wounds and new triumphs – slow burns, seismic riffs, and harmonies so ghostly they could wake the dead. 🧟♂️
🎙️ WILLIAM DUVALL: CARRYING THE LEGACY WITH FIRE & GRACE 🔥
Taking on Layne Staley’s legacy is no small ask – but William DuVall doesn’t imitate. He inhabits the music with his own power and pathos, blending beautifully with Jerry Cantrell’s eerie harmonies.
When they hit the opening lines of “Nutshell,” the entire arena held its breath. No pyro, no smoke – just two voices and a crowd that forgot how to blink.
🎸 JERRY CANTRELL: RIFF MASTER, SORCERER OF SADNESS
Cantrell’s guitar tone should be bottled and classified as a controlled substance. Every riff was thick, sludgy, and dripping with dread – but weirdly comforting, like a weighted blanket that screams in drop D.
His solo on “Rooster”? Straight into the chest. Like being hugged by a ghost with calloused fingers. 🎸🖤
🕯️ MOOD: HAUNTED. BEAUTIFUL. BROODING.
Alice in Chains don’t bring mosh pits – they bring existential dread with a beat you can nod to. That Villa Park crowd wasn’t bouncing, it was swaying. Thousands of people, eyes closed, mouthing along like this was group therapy for broken-hearted grunge kids.
And during “Down in a Hole”? One bloke near us collapsed on his knees. A woman clutched her mate and said, “This is the saddest thing I’ve ever loved.” Same, girl. Same.
🌧️ CROWD AESTHETIC: 90s GLOOM & GLORY
Flannel? Everywhere. Beanies in 23-degree heat? Obviously. Sunglasses at night? I mean, why not.
The vibe was full-on “I cried in my room listening to Dirt in ‘94 and never recovered.”
Grunge is alive and well, butt – and it’s beautifully miserable. 💔🪦
💥 SURPRISES? EMOTIONS, BABY. PURE EMOTIONS.
- “Nutshell” opened with a dedication to Layne Staley and Mike Starr. Screen lit up with old footage. People cried.
- A surprise duet moment: DuVall & Cantrell harmonised unplugged mid-set, and it was so gorgeous we forgot where we were.
- Someone proposed during “No Excuses.” Bold move, considering the band’s entire vibe is emotional collapse.
🎯 FINAL VERDICT: A MASTERCLASS IN BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS
Alice in Chains didn’t come to blow minds. They came to break hearts – and they did it with elegance, sludge, and soul.
There were no gimmicks. No fire. No confetti. Just haunting harmonies, gorgeous grief, and riffs you could sink into like emotional quicksand.
Score: 10/10 Sadcore Saints 🖤🌫️
Mood: Lost in the dark… and totally fine with it.
Diolch, Alice in Chains – for showing us that even the heaviest music can still float.
