ALICE IN CHAINS' 'The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here' Projected To Sell 60K-65K First Week

ALICE IN CHAINS' fifth studio album, "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here", is likely to sell between 60,000 and 65,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release, according to industry web site Hits Daily Double. The estimate was based on one-day sales reports compiled after the record arrived in stores on May 28 via Capitol. The disc follows up 2009's "Black Gives Way To Blue", which was the group's first all-new collection of material in 14 years. That CD opened with 126,000 units back in October 2009 to land at position No. 5 on The Billboard 200 chart.

Although "Black Gives Way To Blue" was a huge comeback success for the band, guitarist/singer Jerry Cantrell told The Pulse Of Radio that they wiped the slate clean when it was time to make something new. "You should start from a zero every time, and we started from a zero with this record just like we've done with every record we've made," he said. "You've got a blank canvas, and you and your band are in the room and there's the canvas and there's no other pictures of the old albums hanging up. You know, those are put away in a closet somewhere, so you're not thinking about them or drawing from them or trying to repeat them or whatever. It's impossible to do that. That is what it was, now what do we do?"

"The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" is ALICE IN CHAINS' second album with William DuVall on vocals.

DuVall began touring with the group in 2006, four years after the death of original singer Layne Staley from a drug overdose.

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

"The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" features the singles "Stone" and the chart-topping "Hollow".

ALICE IN CHAINS heads to Europe next month and Canada in July before co-headlining the fourth annual Rockstar Energy Uproar Festival with JANE'S ADDICTION, kicking off on August 9 in Scranton, Pennsylvania.