During an August 21 appearance on the "Trunk Nation" show on SiriusXM channel Volume (106), ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist Jerry Cantrell spoke about the progress of the writing and recording sessions for the band's long-awaited follow-up to 2013's "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" album. He said: "We're in the process of cobbling together some tunes, and hopefully in the very near future we'll have something out for you guys.'

Asked about a possible "target date" for the release of the next ALICE IN CHAINS disc, Cantrell said: "I don't know. We'll see. When we're ready, we'll let you know. [Laughs] But we are in the process of working on stuff, yeah."

Pressed about whether ALICE IN CHAINS has actually begun recording the new album or if the songs are still being written, Cantrell replied: "I'm not gonna say." He laughed before adding: "I will say we've got a few things brewing, so it probably won't be too much longer."

Asked if there are any ALICE IN CHAINS tour dates in the works, Cantrell said: "That's probably part of the whole package. But, again, one step at a time. We can't go out and do that until we make a great record, in our opinion, and then hopefully a few other people like it too."

ALICE IN CHAINS bassist Mike Inez revealed in June that the band was scheduled to enter Studio X in Seattle later that month to begin recording its new album. Helming the sessions once again is Nick Raskulinecz, who produced the band's last two studio efforts, 2009's "Black Gives Way To Blue" and the aforementioned "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here".

Studio X, which was originally owned by Ann and Nancy Wilson of the band HEART under the name Bad Animals, was the studio where ALICE IN CHAINS recorded its 1995 self-titled album.

"The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" was the band's second disc with singer William Duvall, who joined in 2006 following the death of Layne Staley.

"The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" sold 62,000 copies in its first week of release. It followed up 2009's "Black Gives Way To Blue".

The first two singles from "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here", "Hollow" and "Stone", both hit No. 1 on the rock radio airplay charts, while the album itself debuted on the Billboard album chart at No. 2.