After proving the mettle of new frontman William Duvall at Soundwave 2009, rock mainstays Alice In Chains are ready to unleash a new album. It will be the band’s first with Duvall on board.

A post on the AIC blog trumpets: “We’ve been in the studio since October, and since it all began we celebrated 6 major holidays, elected a new President of the United States, crowned new World Series and Super Bowl champs, endured fires, earthquakes, & blackouts in and around Los Angeles, took a 2 1/2 week break to go to Australia, and to cap it all off, William & Jerry finally euthanized their beards.”

The guys seem quite confident about their handiwork, too. “I honestly believe that this album will return Alice In Chains to the top of the hard rock heap,” the spiel continues. The as-yet-untitled album will be the first original collection of songs from the outfit since 1995’s Alice in Chains.