ALICE IN CHAINS has set a May release date for its new album, which is officially titled "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here". The group's fifth studio effort is its second with William DuVall on vocals and follows up 2009's "Black Gives Way To Blue", the group's first all-new collection of material in 14 years and first since the 2002 death of original singer Layne Staley.

"We made a unique record that's completely different from anything we ever did," ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist Jerry Cantrell tells RollingStone.com. "It encapsulates a period of time, like all records do. You see growth and that the band is moving ahead in new territory that we haven't been to before, but we haven't lost our identity."

He added: "There's some real filth in there. That's intentional, and that's also just how we sound together. We're trying to make a record that we dig and we're trying to keep the bar high for ourselves and see if we can get past it, and I think that we did again. And of course you want people to dig it too and to respond to it, and to have that start happening is satisfying."

ALICE IN CHAINS released a first single called "Hollow" earlier this year from the new disc, along with an accompanying video.

"The initial response to 'Hollow' has been fucking incredible, totally not what we intended, and that's fucking awesome," Cantrell tells RollingStone.com. "We just put that song out there for the fans and then it ended up turning into a number one single, a six-minute sludgy metal tune. That's always fun, to see something like that happen."

ALICE IN CHAINS began working on new material in 2011, but the sessions for the album were delayed when Cantrell had to undergo shoulder surgery.

The band has announced a spring trek that starts on April 25 in Miami Beach and will include headlining slots at the Rocklahoma, Carolina Rebellion, Welcome To Rockville and Rock On The Range festivals.

"Hollow" video: