SEATTLE — Jerry Cantrell is back.

OK, the Alice in Chains guitarist and singer hasn’t exactly been MIA the last few years. When the Seattle grunge lords wrapped up touring around their Grammy-nominated “Rainier Fog” record in 2019, the hammer-swinging songsmith went into solo mode, emerging from a pandemic-extended break with his first solo album in 19 years— the hauntingly gripping “Brighten.”

Three years and several tours later, Cantrell unleashed its follow-up, “I Want Blood,” on Oct. 18. As the snarling title and sludge-busting lead single “Vilified” suggest, “I Want Blood” is a heavier affair than the mellifluous desert noir of “Brighten,” which saw Cantrell deploying some pedal steel and other softer-landing sonics.

That fairly dramatic pendulum swing is something Cantrell’s made habit of throughout his career with Alice in Chains, a band capable of harnessing churning, metallic brooders in one project and stripping down to acoustic nowhere-to-hide ballads the next. Like its predecessor, “I Want Blood” features contributions from an all-star cast including Metallica’s Rob Trujillo, Faith No More’s Mike Bordin and Seattle pal Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses.

We caught up with Cantrell, who celebrated his release week with a signing at Easy Street Records on Oct. 20, to discuss the new album and last month’s 15th-anniversary reissue of “Black Gives Way to Blue,” AIC’s 2009 comeback roar seven years after original frontman Layne Staley died.

This conversation has been edited for concision.

Q: “I Want Blood” is a lot heavier than “Brighten.” What do you think put you in the head space to do something heavier on this record?

A: I’ve always traveled a lot of different territory, musically. We made some really, really different records with Alice and we did it early on, so that kind of opened us up to be able to go wherever we wanted and I carry that with me wherever I go. But I never sit down with some sort of a plan or an outline or an intention, like, “I’m gonna make this kind of record.” I don’t do that. What I do is listen to myself, and I usually know when it’s time to get creative again or when I’m feeling like I wanna get into motion, and I’ll just get my butt in a chair with a guitar and start recording and writing.

I just follow where the music takes me. I don’t sit down with an intention and I’m always surprised that way because I don’t know where it’s going either. But at some point, it becomes pretty clear, like, “OK, it’s going this way. Let’s follow it.”

Q: Was there a turning point where you realized the direction the album was going and how the larger vision was coming together?

A: Yeah, pretty early on. Historically my writing process is usually about three, four months and probably within the first month, month and a half I was like, “OK, I’m seeing where this wants to go and it’s exciting.”

Q: “Afterglow” feels like a song that could exist on either “Brighten” or this new album. I was wondering how that song came together or if you see it as a bridge between the two.

A: I think that’s probably correct. There’s a resemblance, of course. Hopefully, that is your musical fingerprint, so you can tell it’s me. You’re hoping that you have a sound.

I don’t really refer to (my) old records, like “I need like a ‘Brighten’ tune” and “I need a ‘Dirt’ tune.” I don’t do that. When I’m done with the work, I’ve lived with it and listened to it so much (laughs) over the last year and a half, I don’t really need to listen to it anymore. I did do a complete re-listen (of “I Want Blood”) a couple of days ago just to reassure myself, because it still (wasn’t) out yet, and I’m like, “No, that’s good. I couldn’t have done that any better.”

“Afterglow,” I think it’s a cornerstone song on the record and that’s why I thought it would be a good single. I feel that way about “Vilified,” too.

Q: “Vilified” reads like a warning against an AI-driven future. Can you tell me about where you were coming from lyrically and the ideas you wanted to explore?

A: Yeah, I think that’s all in there. It’s a product of its time. Technology and AI is the things we grew up watching in movies, the evil robot. HAL and (Stanley) Kubrick’s movie (“2001: A Space Odyssey”) and “Terminator,” “Ex Machina,” go down the list. It’s a great theme, the evil computer that takes over the world (laughs). But it’s really not the stake of the song.

I think all of technology and AI, all that is just a tool. The song is really about how we decide to use that. We’re a pretty amazing kind of monkey. We’ve come up with some pretty amazing things and some great inventions and innovations and tools to make life a lot better for ourselves.

But a lot of the time there’s the human factor of fallibility there, that it gets used for really (expletive) purposes, too. So, I think in general it’s maybe just a call to be a little cooler to each other than we seem to be a lot of the time and a little more accepting.

Occasionally through history and world events, we get our blood up, you know? And that is not necessarily a good thing. It’s when wars happen. That’s when people turn against each other and it’s maybe just a call to be a little bit more accepting and understanding of each other. Life’s about making a lot of mistakes too, man. You gotta be completely open to failure and making mistakes. That’s how you learn. So, I think the rush to point fingers and (be) like, “Oh, you, you’re no good. You’re excluded from the island. We’re voting you off.” That sort of mentality is a little too prevalent these days.

Q: Duff McKagan plays on a couple songs (“Afterglow,” “I Want Blood” and “Echoes of Laughter”). He’s a buddy of yours, but what do you enjoy about what he’s brought to your records?

A: First off, just his attitude and his commitment, man. I mean, Duff is the ultimate lifer. And his musical sensibilities. He’s always got an edge. I love making music with him and we’ve had the opportunity to do that on numerous records.

He’s a friend of mine. He’s also a guy I really admire and Guns N’ Roses, his band, was really influential on me as a young artist trying to make my own band.

Alice has always been kind of a family and a group of friends. And if you look at all the musicians that I’ve had the opportunity to work with on the four records I’ve done outside of Alice, it’s all my friends. You wanna make music with people that you dig, that you vibe with, that you care about. And they just happen to be some of the most badass musicians on the planet (laughs.) I’m pretty lucky in that respect.

Q: The 15th-anniversary reissue of “Black Gives Way to Blue” just came out. Obviously a pivotal record for Alice, being the first without Layne and coming after a long break. What was it like making that record for you? Was there anything that let you know, “Yes, this feels right?”

A: You just put one foot in front of the other and see where it takes you. Once we got into the process, it felt really good and that record is really powerful. And it was not easy. I don’t think there were a ton of people that really wanted to see us continue on, which has always been kind of weird to me. I guess when your friend passes, you have to change your name and you can’t be who you are anymore (laughs). It’s not your band anymore because your buddy died that you were in a band with. It’s like, that’s the last thing Layne would have wanted.

I saw a great Neil Young interview clip the other day and he was saying the same thing. You got to trust your gut and when it comes to anybody else, (expletive) ‘em. Do what you feel is right and you’re never going to lose that way.

That resonated with me because that’s basically how we’ve been going about things from the get-go. It’s how we still operate and I think that record was really powerful and started a whole new chapter to the book of Alice, or a Book II, if you will.

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