Alice in Chains

Excellent band. Grunge but not pure grunge, rocky but not straight rock, a few metalish moments and throw in a few pinches of prog - bliss.

Completely overshadowed by the success of Nirvana. AIC in my opinion wrote better songs, played MUCH better, and Layne Staley sang better than ol' kurt. One of my top "non prog" bands. Just one hell of a solid band that doesn't(didn't) get the recognition it deserves.




Edited by Hierophant - July 25 2006 at 03:15

My favorite band of the grunge era. Alice in Chains: Dirt (and Soundgarden: Badmotorfinger and Superunknown) we're really more dark, quite 70's sounding heavyrock from Seattle at the same time as Nirvana's breakthrough. The stripped down, mainly acoustic EP Sap and mini album Jar of Flies shows they're classic songwriting brilliance.  

I enjoyed them together with Soundgarden and  Pearl Jam

My favorite band of that era- easily.

Besides Soundgarden AIC is one of my favorite bands to come out of Seattle.Everyone talks about how good Staley was but what about Jerry Cantrell?He wrote most of the music,he sang alot more than most people know(besides most of the harmonies he sang lead alot)and is a damn good guitarist.

I agree that they're far superior to Nirvana. How people listen to a band who's songs all have the same beat is beyond me.

You're absolutely right. Alice in Chains was by far the best band to come from Seattle (in the grunge era... years before, Queensryche emerged from that Washington State city...), their music the most original of the grunge movement. Dirt was a great album with a couple of outstanding songs like Angry Chair or Would?, and also Them Bones and Down in a Hole... I love the sadness, the inherent depression found in Staley's lyrics, in his singing, all of that well supported by excellent tunes by Cantrell, whose vocals skills are, I agree, underrated. Their next album, the one with no name but with the three-legged dog in the cover, was their best: just listen to Frogs, Over Now... And let's not forget the talent the drummer had! (right now I can't remember the name... I remem,ber Mike Inez in bass, but in drums, it was Sean something...) anyway, he played original patterns, short yet precise fills, listen to the simple yet effective drum-intro in No Excuses... great band, and they should deserve the top place among "Grungers"... as somebody said, they're not even grunge, they were a blend of everything.

AIC kicked a whole lot of ass back in the day. Dirt is easily one of the greatest rock albums of all time.

Cantrell has already deservedly been praised a lot in this thread, so I think a little more needs to be said about Staley:

He was one of the greatest vocalists ever, one of those one-of-a-kind vocalists that is so unique in his sound that it is likely nobody ever has or ever will sound like him again.

Other examples of such vocalists: Maynard of Tool, Chino of the Deftones (yeah, they're not necessarily all that great, but his voice is definitely unique), and Freddie Mercury of Queen.

AIC are tied with Pearl Jam as my second favorite grunge group (Soundgarden take the cake with the astounding Chris Cornell) Nirvana were good, but no member was really talented with the exception of Kurt as a lyricist, not singer or guitarist. Jerry's songwriting was dark and his guitar playing makes him the foremost grunge guitarist, narrowly beating out Mike McCready of Pearl Jam. Layne Staley, though not good with range, was like Eddie Vedder in that the two gave some of the most emotional vocals this side of the Mississippi Delta.