ALICE IN CHAINS has set a May 28 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.

The "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" album title refers to a belief held by some religious individuals that to confuse the masses of humanity, Satan himself planted dinosaur bones deep into the Earth to dissuade the faithful.

In a new interview with Revolver magazine, ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist Jerry Cantrell was asked about the lyrics, "The devil put dinosaurs here / Jesus don't like a queer / No problem with faith / Just fear," which appear in the new CD's title track. "What's the old joke?" Cantrell said. "There are two things you never want to get into a conversation or argument about: politics and religion. But fuck, I guess we're going to be talking about this for awhile. [laughs]"

He added: "Read a fucking paper. What I've seen is the most basic message to most faith systems is in contradiction with how it gets applied. The human element seems to fuck it up. It seems to fuck up the basic truths of acceptance, loving your brother, helping each other out, not trying to kill each other or steal each other's shit. Those are all pretty good ideas. And most of your major religions have those things as basic tenets of the belief system. It always amazes me that some of the most hateful and hurtful things are done in the name of some sort of belief system."

Songtitles set to appear on the CD:

* Voices
* Low Ceiling
* Stone
* The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
* Hollow
* Lab Monkey
* Hung On A Hook
* Pretty Done
* Breath On A Window
* Choke
* Phantom Limb

The album's cover artwork can be seen below.

"We made a unique record that's completely different from anything we ever did," Cantrell told 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: