The Brave Picks Top 30 Of 2009 countdown continues! Each day in December we will deliver one of the essential records of the year - as voted by the scribes here at BraveWords.com. We have entered the Top Ten!

Double-bass drum roll please ....

#8 - ALICE IN CHAINS – Black Gives Way To Blue (Virgin)

Says BraveWords.com's Martin Popoff:

New life, but, man, listening to the pounding new Black Gives Way To Blue record, you gotta conclude Seattle’s heaviest, ALICE IN CHAINS, have stuck to their leaden, doomy metal vibe, thank the gods of grunge and all that they mope over.

“New?” laughs drummer Sean Kinney, basically agreeing that Alice is still in Chains, “New ingredient, well, there’s another guy. That’s a major ingredient, and what we brought forth was the same guys (laughs), the same thing. So I mean, the bulk of everything is there, but we’ve added a new member (singer William DuVall, of course, in place of the slayed by hard drugs Layne Staley). But the dynamic’s shifted. There was never replacing Layne, so we just added a new member to blend in and fit in and bring what he brings, and Jerry (Cantrell, guitars, co-vocals) has taken on a bigger role, so the dynamic has changed from before. But being in this from the beginning, our take on it was always that it’s two singers who did this, and that’s a major part of the sound. And we always did all the harmonies. I don’t know if enough people ever really noticed that, or picked up on that, because in your typical rock format, it’s, ‘That’s the singer, that’s the lead guitar player, he’s playing blazing lead solos, and he’s playing with a drill, and the drummer flies around plays drum solos and shit.’ So you know, it’s just that the dynamic’s shifted but the core of what we do and how we do it is pretty much the same.”

Read the entire interview here.

BraveWords.com - Brave Picks Top 30 Of 2009

#30 - DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT - Addicted (InsideOut)

#29 - GOD DETHRONED - Passiondale (Metal Blade)

#28 - KISS - Sonic Boom (Kiss Records/ Walmart)

#27 - GORGOROTH - Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt (Regain)

#26 - CHEAP TRICK - The Latest (Cheap Trick)

#25 - EX DEO - Romulus (Nuclear Blast)

#24 - SWALLOW THE SUN – New Moon (Spinefarm)

#23 - KATATONIA - Night Is The New Day (Peaceville)

#22 - KREATOR - Hordes of Chaos (Steamhammer)

#21 - ASPHYX - Death... The Brutal Way (Century Media)

#20 - GOATWHORE - Carving Out The Eyes Of God (Metal Blade)

#19 - VADER – Necropolis (Nuclear Blast)

#18 - CHICKENFOOT – Chickenfoot (Redline)

#17 - BRUTAL TRUTH - Evolution Through Revolution (Relapse)

#16 - CANNIBAL CORPSE – Evisceration Plague (Metal Blade)

#15 - MASTODON - Crack The Skye (Warner)

#14 - PORCUPINE TREE – The Incident (Roadrunner)

#13 - CANDLEMASS - Death Magic Doom (Nuclear Blast)

#12 - AMORPHIS – Skyforger (Nuclear Blast)

#11 - SACRIFICE – The Ones I Condemn (Sonic Unyon)

#10 - VOIVOD – Infini (Sonic Unyon/Relapse)

#9 - HEAVEN AND HELL – The Devil You Know (Rhino)

#8 - ALICE IN CHAINS – Black Gives Way To Blue (Virgin)