The bloodletting continues for Jerry Cantrell, who just unveiled the second single from his forthcoming solo LP, I Want Blood. While “Vilified” was an all-attacking, grunge-glazed swing of the axe, his new “Afterglow” cuts a touch gentler. No less affecting, though.
The song is steered by Cantrell’s instantly familiar tenor, here wistfully weighing in on parasitic relationships, low feelings, and — keeping things thematically on point — “trying hard to bleed slower” through troubling times. Structurally, though, Cantrell banged this one out with longtime friend and collaborator Duff McKagan on bass, and Gil Sharone (Marilyn Manson, Dillinger Escape Plan) on drums, among others.
Visually, the video also re-teams Cantrell with director-artist Matt Mahurin, who’d first entered the Alice in Chains founder’s orbit back in the Nineties, while helming music videos for Dirt’s “Angry Chair” and Jar of Flies’ “No Excuses.” This time around, Mahurin blends sepia-toned shots of Cantrell singing his metal ballad with a surrealist set of animated visuals. Cantrell called the director’s latest work “a moving piece of film to accompany the song.”
“Two of my all-time favorite videos I’ve directed are ‘No Excuses’ and ‘Angry Chair’ for Alice in Chains in the early 1990s. To be able to once again offer my visual work to Jerry’s ‘Afterglow’ some thirty years later was a blast,” Mahurin said in a statement. “From opera aria to pop tunes, everybody sees a movie playing in their mind’s eye when they listen to a song. Jerry inspired a welcome fever dream that I was grateful to lure out of my mind’s eye.”
As previously reported, I Want Blood is out October 18th. The record also features performances from Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin, Better Lovers frontman Greg Puciato and more.
Cantrell has also been out on tour all summer supporting Bush, with the trip wrapping up mid-month. You’ll find the remaining dates down below.
Jerry Cantrell tour dates 2024:
9/7 Durant, OK – Choctaw Casino & Resort !
9/8 Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion !
9/11 Las Vegas, NV – Bakkt Theater !
9/13 San Diego, CA – Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre !
9/14 Phoenix, AZ – Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre !
9/15 Los Angeles, CA – The Greek Theatre !
! with Bush, Candlebox