Alice In Chains Working On New Material

After reuniting for a tour last year, grunge era rock group Alice In Chains are working on new songs in Los Angeles.

"I've been here for five days, sat through three rehearsals and one demo recording session, listened to several other demos, and I can happily report that the new stuff is kicking my ass right out of my pants," a source close to the band said in an April 20 blog post on the band's website.

"Remember that these songs are still only in the early stages of being written too. Just in the time I've been here, the guys have taken a riff and worked on it and expanded it and added layers to it, and now it's practically a full-fledged song."

There's no word on when a new album might be released, but the source (known as "Baldy") expects the band to continue working through the coming months. It's the band's first new material since the 2002 drug overdose death of lead singer Layne Staley, and an album would be the first since 1995's self-titled effort. Alice In Chains included two new songs on the 1999 Music Bank boxed set and released a two-disc compilation called The Essential Alice In Chains last year.

The band's surviving original members — Jerry Cantrell, Sean Kinney and Mike Inez — reunited in 2005 for a one-off benefit concert in Seattle for victims of the tsunami disaster in southeast Asia. They launched a North American tour last year with singer William DuVall. A live DVD from that tour is expected to be released sometime later this year.