ALICE IN CHAINS has completed mixing its first new studio album in 14 years. According to an online posting by The Baldy — whose job is "to travel the world with ALICE IN CHAINS and send photos, videos and blog entries back to [the webmasters] at AliceInChains.com" — "Some amazing songs were written and recorded. From the heaviest riff-dripping gut-puncher to the most sadly beautiful song I think this band has ever recorded, I honestly believe that this album will return ALICE IN CHAINS to the top of the hard rock heap.

"So now the next few months are dedicated to things like album artwork, lining up interviews and press, shooting videos, planning tours, and figuring out whether to bury Jerry [Cantrell, guitar/vocals] and William's [DuVall, vocals] beards at sea or donate them to science.

"Hopefully these new songs will strike a chord and make a similar impact on all of you out there that were moved by this band in the first place. These songs have definitely done that with me, and frankly I'm getting pretty sick and tired of loving this stuff alone, so I can’t wait for it to be released so it'll become your favorite record of 2009 and we can discuss it at the shows."

There is no official word yet on when the new ALICE IN CHAINS album will come out, although a fall release is tentatively expected.

The group began writing and recording the disc on its own last year, and intends to sign a new record deal now that the project is finished.

ALICE IN CHAINS' last full-length studio effort was a self-titled disc issued in 1995. Layne Staley died from a drug overdose in April of 2002.