Blagger’s guide

Mini-Biography

Alice in Chains are a rock band who were pivotal in defining the Seattle grunge movement in the early 1990′s. Formed in 1987 by singer Layne Stayley and guitarist Jerry Cantrell, AIC recorded 3 studio albums and 2 EP’s, before dissolving due the pressure of Stayley’s drug habit. The drugs eventually got the better of Stayley who died in 2002.

Alice in Chains were phenomenally successful havind sold in excess of 17 million albums. They recently reformed with new singer William Duval and will release a new studio album in late 2009.

What do they sound like

Doom laden metal guitars, soaring harmonized vocals and Layne Stayley’s signature howl. This is the sound of having swine flu while being drunk and dosed up on lemsip.

Also try

Soundgarden, Mad Season, Jerry Cantrell, Temple of the Dog, Godsmack

GUIDE TO THE BEST ALICE IN CHAINS ALBUMS

Must Have

Dirt (1992)

Dirt is aptly titled – you somehow feel less clean after listening to it. This is not a criticism; music should make you feel something, anything. Dirt will make you emote. Dirt will make you feel disgust and distain, compassion and tolerance – often in the same song. Some albums are about the music: the sounds, melodies, noises, musicianship or lack there of. Others are about the words: poetry, rhetoric, anger, hatred, love, indifference. Dirt is about all these.

Layne Staley’s struggle with drug addiction is the primary theme for this album, and the thing that, ultimately, led to the band’s dissolution and Stayley’s tragic death. Songs like Godsmack, Junkhead and Sickman are cathartic hymns to the paradox at the heart of heroine addiction – both celebratory and desolate. Lyrics melt in and out seemingly with Staley’s state of inebriation. Lines like “What’s my drug of choice? well what have you got?/I don’t go broke, and I do it a lot” juxtaposed with “Now you know the reasons why/Can’t get high, or you will die, Or you’ll die”.

Jerry Cantrell’s doom-laden guitar and soothing backing vocals perfectly complement stark lyrical themes. An accomplished musician, Cantrell exercises restraint not common in the Rock genre. The solo’s appear where appropriate and exist to punctuate the muted ceremony. Awkward song structures and jarring changes in cadence are woven together with soft harmonized vocals.
Above all, Staley’s anguished howl serves to give the music impact and immediacy that counterpoint the doom laden atmosphere and are ultimately what carried Alice In Chains to their commercial success.

There are hits here, the stadium rock of Would?, the harmonic whimsy of Down in a Hole, histrionic thrash-doom of Them Bones, and these among others made AIC very successful indeed.

Few albums can be said to define a movement, and despite equally important works from peers Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, Dirt was the album that really captured the Grunge zeitgeist.

Recommended

Facelift (1990)

Layne Stayley and Jerry Cantrell were underperforming but talented musicians when the latest incarnation of their band got singed to major label Columbia in 1989. Facelift, their debut album is mature, assured and powerful. AIC’s distinctive sound is fully formed and this album formed part of the very backbone of the Grunge sound and movement.

A stylistic mishmash of styles from funk and blues to downbeat metal and doom, Facelift at times feels a little incoherent. Nevertheless, some of AIC’s most distinctive and well known songs are here – The laid back thrash of We Die Young and their first hit Man in the Box. But dig deeper than these crowd-pleasing openers and there’s some tortured gems. I Can’t Remember is the sound of a hangover. Tortured love epic Love, Hate, Love is a showcase for Stayley’s battered vocals. Sunshine a sluggish anthem suggesting childhood torment.

As every, Stayley’s powerful vocals steal the show, but Cantrell’s grinding guitars and subtle backing vocals make for a rounded sonic experience.

There’s a bit of everything here, and despite being at time a little unfocused it’s a highly engaging listen, and will have you coming back for more and more.

Jar of Flies (1994)

Originally just “4 guys going into the studio with acoustic guitars” between after the commercial success of Dirt, the Jar of Flies EP sees AIC in laid back form. Although this wasn’t consciously planned as a release, it was released and was AIC’s first #1 album in the US.

Essentially an ‘acoustic’ album, it makes the most of muted vocal harmonies and soft multi-layered guitar. This is the sound of the morning after, unwashed and fuzzy, still buzzing but coming down hard.
The jagged lyrical themes of Facelift and Dirt largely are sanded down to a poetical but largely prosaic accompaniment to the mild musical mêlée.

Starting with the mesmerizing repetition of Rotten Apple, then followed by the simplistic blues of Nutshell. I Stay Away sees AIC tempt us with commercial songwriting nouse only to twist it discomfortingly, then following up with country-pop gem No Excuses. Here the album tails off into less coherent territory leaving you feeling a little disheartened that they hadn’t really tried to make a go of this as a full length album.

Jar of Flies is experimental and often beautiful. However, this is no mish-mash of off-cuts from full length albums but a muted statement – this EP stands alone, none of these songs would be at home anywhere else.

Sap (1992)

In a stuttering attempt to follow-up Facelift, Alice in Chains recorded five acoustic songs and, in an act of superstition off the back of a dream had by drummer Sean Kinney, released the songs as an EP. This is perhaps significant as these songs are a far stylistic cry from what would become Facelift’s follow-up proper Dirt.

Unlike the later acoustic EP Jar of Flies, Sap is stripped down and back to basics, relying on little studio trickery and sparse use of the electric guitar. In many ways, this could be consider AIC’s most traditional set of songs, and at times (like on the final track) sees them on almost jovial form. Perhaps the most notable element of this collection are the guest vocalists – then Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, and Mudhoney singer Mark Arm on Right Turn, and Heart’s Ann Wilson provides backing vocals on 3 of the tracks. Sap also saw Jerry Cantrell take lead vocalist duty for the first time on Brother.

This is a diverting set of songs and Brother and Got me Wrong rank among their finest. Sap is usually found packaged with Jar of Flies, and taken as a unit these two EP’s could be considered Alice in Chains’ 3rd great album.

Approach with caution

Alice in Chains (1995)

With Staley’s drug abuse already becoming unmanageable, the bands eponymous 3rd full-length studio album is a dour affair, even by their previous standards. Cantrell took lead vocal duties on several of these tracks, and even on songs where does Staley take the lead duties his distinctive tones are usually obscured by dense layers of backing vocals. This is compounded further by murky, no-frills production, giving it a feel of a Doom metal album.

There are high points here; the Cantrell vocalled Heaven Beside You is sludge-country reminiscent of earlier hit No Excuses. Grind is comparable AIC at their best.

Overall this album never reaches the hazy highs and grimy lows of their previous offerings. It’s worthy addition to any collection, but Staley’s epitaph will surely strewn with Dirt.