Dirt

I literally just listened to this yesterday, because I've loved this album for a long time. I mean, I'm not complaining listening to it again. 01. Them Bones One of the most iconic and best opening tracks to any album, ever. 02. Dam That River Extremely iconic, and extremely good. You're going to quickly see a pattern with these short song reviews. 03. Rain When I Die I really love this song, but even I find the beginning and ending a bit too long. Still, a fantastic track. 04. Down In A Hole Classic, iconic, sad. I don't really know what to say for these, as this isn't a first time listening like for a lot of these. A lot of these are great because of personal reasons as well. 05. Sickman First half is super kickass and epic, second half literally makes me cry. That's all you have to know. 06. Rooster Absolutely beautiful. Objectively incredible. 07. Junkhead Has always been my personal least favorite, but this is still an absolutely fantastic track. 08. Dirt One of my favorite and legendary riffs ever. Fucking fantastic. 09. God Smack One of my favorite chorus' EVER. Super wacky and awesome verses, just a fantastic song. 10. Untitled Cool little ode to Iron Man. 11. Hate To Feel A wicked cool song. Another one of the weaker ones for me, but that chorus is legendary. I can't help bot notice the similarity between it and Swing On This as well... I prefer Swing On This but don't let anyone know I told you dat. 12. Angry Chair Like, come on. Even if you don't know this song, you know this song. 13. Would? It's just so FUCKING good, man. I've been listening to this album for literal years, growing up with it as well. I love this album. I also have a personal connection to the album due to that. Every song on here is an absolute classic, and you could never convince me otherwise.

i never got all the way through Dirt. it was just too much. too aggro, too raw, too real. i loved pretty much every other grunge band growing up, but Alice In Chains were heavier and grimmer than the rest, without softness or humor or arena or pop sensibilities (or so it seemed at the time). i remembered Dirt, though. specifically, i remembered the opening of Down In A Hole's first verse, which seemed to dilute perfectly the record's hopelessness. but even more vividly, i remembered Them Bones. it is hard to elucidate in text the shock/exhilaration/repulsion that the first track of this record brought out in me as a young listener. the riff is itself something to behold, grinding slowly upwards like an old rollercoaster before dropping sharply back down, over and over again. at the same moment that the guitar drops, Layne Staley screams. it is a pained kind of scream, aggressive and frightening but somehow vulnerable, not so much i'll-fuck-you-up as get-away-i'm-scared. at the time, it worked. the force of the pain on this record was too much. i tapped out. but for years, i've thought about that scream. now, i fucking LOVE Them Bones. it's the first in a 4-song suite of total unimpeachability. the melody and vulnerability which i couldn't uncover as a teenager seems so plain here, and the aggression is purposeful and intoxicating. a lot of bands would go on to sound aggressive in the same way - more than Nevermind or Ten or Superunknown, i think this record/band really defines the sound of execrable post-grunge late 90s-early 00s bullshit rock - but god, did these guys mean it. Staley's vocals, easily imitated have a depth and timbre to them you don't really hear from similar singers. the chorus of Dam That River is particularly stunning - all the nasal buzz is gone from his voice, and he imbues it with a real sonorous kind of power, and it is Fucking Scary. the lyrics - portentous, reflective, wise - lend the record a lot of legitimacy. the heaviness of the music really just feels like it's trying to catch up with the gravity of Staley/Cantrell's feelings. it's not a choice, it's a necessity. i do struggle with the back half of the record, in ways somewhat similar to my general resistance earlier in life. it's as it should be, but god, it's just ugly. there is very little melody past Rooster until the closing track, and it does make the record drag a bit for me. it is the very same realness i love in that opening salvo, but lacking what makes it go down quite so smoothly. even breaking the album up into halves, i found things starting to run together, the marathon nature of the record's bad vibes starting to exhaust me a bit. it is great stuff though, and so massively, uncomfortably heart-on-sleeve in a way that much of this music isn't. i still find it challenging, and hard to sit with, but it feels more inviting to me than it ever did, and i can love its many highs much more unabashedly

Dirt is most definitely the best album AIC put out and the songs flow so well. This album dropped at a time when grunge was making it's way to the mainstream and showing hair metal the way out! AIC has produced many hits over the years even after the death of Layne and this album has quite a few on it. Album get a solid 9/10 from me and 4 stars.

I don’t like this kind of music.

Haven't really heard much/anything by Alice In Chains. I quite enjoyed the slightly more metal-y take on grunge but after a while it all got a bit same-y. Good, not great.

‘Down In A Hole’ is a good song. Decent album.

I can dig that this is good at what it does, but it isn't really my style of music. I couldn't tell most of the songs apart. Not unlistenable, but also not something I'm likely to revisit. Maybe 2.5 stars?

Really, really good. Heavy, soulful, catchy. Chef's kiss.

Marko 4 Sara 2.5

Classic Grunge.

Rude

Tekipä hyvää kuunnella jotain oikeasti hyvää musaa monen keskinkertaisen tai huonon levyn jälkeen. Alice in Chains on Nirvanan ohella lempparini 90-luvun nk. grunge-bändeistä ja Dirt on yhtyeen kiistaton mestariteos. Tällä levyllä kaikki vain toimii. Soundit ovat raskaat ja rapeat. Sanoitukset ovat synkkiä ja angstisia, mutta levyn kuuntelu ei kuitenkaan aiheuta liian ahdistunutta oloa. Teksteissä puidaan mm. huumeriippuvuutta joka lopulta koitui vokalisti Layne Staleyn kohtaloksi.

This was intentionally programmed the day after Tonight's the Night, since Dirt's the 1992 equivalent, right? Jerry's wah tone is a thing of beauty.

Trash

A masterpiece of raw exposed nerves and emotion.

Alice in Chains is one of those bands that holds such a special place in my heart. This album is amazing.

AIC is one of those bands that I should like more than I do, given its era, genre, and general vibe. Don't get me wrong, AIC are great, but they've never been a band that I've followed, purchased music by, or really gave two shits about apart from a handful of tracks. While listening to this album, I really tried to figure out why. I believe it's because theu have choppy plodding riffs and peculiar melodies that I just can't get on board with. It sounds cool, but it sounds weird. And that's what AIC does, so, if that trips your trigger, then cool. Take my favorite AIC song, Again (different album), for instance. That track has a killer riff that I love and an amazing groove, but towards the end of the song they bust into this goofy "do do do" part that doesn't fit the song and it kinda ruins it for me. So, I dunno. I guess this is just a 3 star album for me, but AIC has enough cred that I can concede to 4 star, because, AIC.

Very nice.

Not really my thing, but willing to try it some more.

Finally something that I actually listen to on the regular. I don't care what anyone says, I had to suffer through a lot of bullshit on this list so I gotta give this a 5. Nothing else to add, great album.

Nice grunge

9.2/10

Probablemente el álbum de grunge que más escuché y seguramente uno de los que más escuché en 2022.

gritty and dark rock that makes me feel like a bit of a teenage boy in the 90s

The worst outcome if you mixed equal parts of Guns N Roses and Nirvana.

I absolutely love this album and have done for years. On balance, it's slightly too long with a few filler tracks. Some absolute classics on here though.

Good

It's just not my thing; too heavy and shouty for me to enjoy. I'm sure there is a parallel universe where I want to shout for over an hour straight, but in this realm, even with the amount of children that I have, I haven't found the need.

Putting some metal back into the grunge scene.

I knew of but had never listened to AiC despite liking a lot of their peers. This hit all the right notes for me and I can't believe it's the first time I'm listening to it. It's a breath of fresh air and manages to sound contemporary whilst also being obviously from the 90s. This was the best school run of the week - the fact my seven year old immediately started humming along to the first song just reinforces that this one's a winner.

Friday, 16 October, 2026 I was walking into this album ready to give it 1/5 stars. But I enjoyed it a little more than I was expecting. It’s just so much and so long. I get it Layne. You are sad and addicted to heroin. The rest of the band is pretty good.

Nothing particularly jumps out at me on this. A bit more melodic than some metal. It was not a bad listen but doubt I’ll come back to it.

Grunge classic, depressing and invigorating at the same time.

Favourite Songs: Dam That River Rain When I Die Rooster Dirt Angry Chair

Nice grunge album

No jar of flies but still amazing grunge

Rooster was pretty good

Probably sehr gut, aber irgendwie nicht so meins. Sehr skillvolle Instrumentals, aber hat mich nicht gecatched

metal doet gewoon erg weinig voor me. smelt allemaal beetje samen ben ik bang

de vocals deden me niet zo veel, maar wat een gitaarwerk en wat een sfeer

It's not super bad, but still, in current year, it feels incredibly mediocre. If given a task to distinguish this from any other alternative metal grungy band, I'd have a lot of problems. I understand that this might not have been the case in 1992, but right now? Yeah.....

Ok - new to me. Definitely coming back again. 3

i love the tone they achieve on this album. really hits the vibe i think they were going for. unfortunately i think they fall short with some songs here that just cut through the experience highlights: dam that river junkhead dirt

naught but bangers

For how much I hate this list every so often i get an excuse to listen to an album I've been meaning to listen to. This confirms that I don't like this band. It is so claustrophobic and insular. I feel like it revels in the uncomfortable and the path to destruction but in such a padded one step removed sort of way. They do a very good job of creating that feeling but even in my most depressed state this feels too nihilistic for me. Well done just really not for me

What a great album. RIP Layne.

I like Alice in Chains but this album as a whole was not for me. It is quite a far cry from Jar of Flies, which is probably a 5 star album.

Coming right after Metallica's black album, this is another major early nineties release in the grunge and metal corner. I really like grunge as I grew up with it in the 90's. But I listened more to Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Nirvana to name a few famous Seattle grunge bands. But AIC is one of the mothers of all grunge bands and definitely belongs to the same list. From this album, I am mainly familiar with the "hits" like "Them Bones" and "Rooster" and don't have the album in my collection. It's a great album, but to be honest, it is a bit long to listen almost an hour to quite depressive, heavy, and doomy tracks. At a certain point the heavy, doomy mood starts to drag a bit and that is probably the reason I feel a bit less connected with AIC than with a bit more up tempo grunge. 4/5

I'm kinda dizzy from all the headbanging.

This one has most of the hits, and at 13 tracks almost no misses - Sickman is the only one I didn't love but it seems like they were going for something experimental here with time sig / thematic shifts, so maybe its something that would grow on me now that I'm familiar.

“God forbid one day you have a son like you, Jeremiah. A boy who lies through his teeth, buys demonic records, and smokes the dope!” Detroit Rock City (1999)

Perfectly adequate. It's fine.

I like Alice In Chains, and the wall of sound they can throw. But, maybe an entire album is too much grunge. A song or two absolutely punches up the playlist, and I’m ready to slay monsters. But, 57 minutes, it gets a little sludgy at times.

4.5

very cool band, will have to do more research on the band and this album.

not my genre

In places it was ok, but it did drag on a bit with some repetition.

3.5 stars already had most songs

Buns

everything sounds the same

This genre is not for me.

Almost bizarre how close this is to contemporary Megadeth at times. I really wish I could give half stars.

Alice in Chains is a occasional guilty pleasure of mine. They really exemplify the morphing of a lot of 80s metal into 90s grunge, and this album a lot of their big hits. "Them Bones" and "Dam That River" are my faves on here but "Rooster" and "Angry Chair" are standouts for me as well.

An essential grunge group that I've always really needed to check out, but never got around to. Admittedly, grunge is never my '90s genre of choice, and I can't easily get behind the sound, but both the astounding critical reception and popularity of this band have kept it within striking distance at all times. I will say I didn't fully understand all the praise it gets on first listen. It's painfully consistent and sort of repetitive at its worst moments. But I feel, just like Pearl Jam, this is a record that needs repeated listens for the brilliance of the riffs, vocals, and lyrics to make themselves apparent. For now, I'll say I did enjoy it. It's certainly heavy, drawing as much from thrash metal as it does from traditional grunge. I mean, you get some pretty gnarly solos, my absolute favourite being the one on the title track. They offer a nice retreat from the very heavy, slow, and sludgey guitars here. And this does feel like a trudge through the depths of a very troubled mind, the lyrics speaking pretty heavily of drugs, death, depression, and betrayal...not the funnest stuff. It's a record I found I got lost in pretty early on; things just started blending in with one another. I felt like I was in this desolate hellscape album cover - again, a vibe I can usually get behind. Still, this thing was exhausting; there's just so much of one singular sound, and the vocal range is super limited as well. It does make the occasional switch-ups hit so much harder, though. I mentioned those great solos, but I also liked when they bring out the wah pedals on the funkier moments of 'Rain When I Die' or 'Sickman'. I loved the cavernous reverb and chorus on the bass of 'Angry Chair'; it makes the song feel so much larger than anything else here. It's a highlight in the tracklisting here; it even has a pretty memorable chorus. The warmer moments here also stuck with me, like with 'Down In A Hole' or the closer 'Would?'; I love the harmonies, vocals, and liberal use of effects on the guitars on these tracks. And I will 100% admit they wouldn't hit nearly as hard if the rest of the record didn't sound so dry, raw, dirty. As soon as this started, I knew for a fact that it would take some work for me to enjoy it. That's just the nature of my relationship with this type of music. It was good, and in certain listening contexts, I see myself eating this up. I just haven't fully found my vibe with this thing, but I'll come around to it. But overall, the experience was positive.

One of the greatest rock album of the 90's. It mixes of grunge and metal. Its a lot heavier than other grunge band. The riffs are great, Layne Staley's voices sounds amazing and the lyrics are prety good. And their damn fucking sad too. Rip Staley. The middle section of the album is less good than the start and the end but its the only negative thing I can point out. A bit too slow for me. The best part is 100% the hooks. They fucking cut. INTO THE FLOOD AGAAAAAAAIN/5

Such a distinctive sound for a rock band

This album was really good, the riffs were badass and catchy, and the vocals just hit, this shits grungy and dirty and really great, overall it upped my high sesh and was a great listen

One of the best albums of the 90s. Almost no filler on the album. Doesn‘t get much better than this.

Real 90s grunge rock, kinda like nirvana style but not as good.

First track was good but a really tough listen afterwards. Too much drums sometimes and too little drums sometimes. Vocals nfm

This is just too angry and sad for me to want to listen to again anytime soon…it does rock and the band is in top form but the subject matter of these songs just makes it a chore to listen to

Too slow. Incredibly boring.

The pinnacle of grunge. Them Bones, Rooster, and Would? are all stone cold classics with completely different vibes.

not for me

I just can’t get into this genre

The Smiths of the grunge era - underrated, rock solid, interesting, and still a little one-note. Could've done with maybe 3 less songs about heroin.

It's a 5, easy as that. One of the all time greatest grunge/rock/metal albums of all time.

I woke up at 2am and couldn't fall back asleep, but I guess it works out because 3am is apparently a pretty good time to listen to Alice in Chains. Anyways, I couldn't think of a more apt name for this album if I tried. This album just sounds like something that'd be called "Dirt." It's the really down-in-the-dumps kind of songwriting with the distinctly Sludge Metal guitars that make it sound like the soundtrack to a pretty awesome burial. I'm a big fan of the vocal harmonies throughout this album, too. They're really what gives this album its distinct sound here, although it took me way too long to realize that it's two people singing and not just Layne Staley layering his own vocals. I will say I feel like this album starts to get overly samey by the end but there are enough songs throughout to break up that feeling.

Well here it is album 1001 for me. As I said yesterday I did hope that I’d get a real classic album to mark this occasion. As it is, least said about this album the better. Instead just a few notes about my 1001 journey so far which I will probably repeat or elaborate on in 88 albums time when I do in fact finish this process. I began on the 3rd January 2024 whilst enjoying a lazy lie in after the Christmas holidays. I was looking to buy the 1001 book and randomly saw the google link to this site. I fancied the challenge so immediately signed up not knowing how serious I would take it. New year new resolution and all that! My first album was Radiohead’s Ok Computer which really is a classic album and which would have graced today’s selection. Two days later I got The Bends so I really was getting pampered in that first week. Short time later I was served up my first previously unknown album, Keith Jarret’s Koln Concert. What a corker of an album which convinced me if there were some similar gems to discover in the list that I should continue to the end. Not only that but after a while when I realised I hadn’t missed one day reviewing an album, I became determined to listen and review an album without any breaks. So I can tell you 3rd January 2024 is exactly 1001 days ago and that I will finish the whole process on 26th December 2026. Nearly 3 years to complete but the fastest possible way. My initial good luck in album selection appears not to have continued because my average star rating up to date and unlikely to change is just 2.63. I am rated as a critic .53 below the global average. I believe reason for this is the propensity of hip hop and rap albums which I loathe and abhor. My favourite genre according to the list is Folk music which it isn’t. Whilst I do like Folk I would never describe it as a favourite. I am very much a Prog Rock man which appears at 4th in my favourites list. So I can only conclude that the source where the stats are garnered from (Wiki?) is not entirely reliable but nevertheless give a rough idea. I’m not deriding the accompanying stats or summary section which give a fascinating insight into your musical tastes. More of that in 88 days time as I’m sure an album or artist I like or hate more than most will crop up. Alice in Chains maybe? 1/5 29/9/26

Found myself enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would. The metal and 80s hair blend is strong here, it works, in a very amber tinged 90's way. HERE COME THE ROOSTERRRRR

Talk about an album that clobbers you from the get-go: that first hit on "Them Bones" makes me take a step back even years later. The rest of Dirt is similarly pummeling, with only a small handful of mid-tempo sections thrown in to offer some breathing room. Thematically, this is typical grunge fare: hard living, drug use and internal demons are the big 3 themes throughout this album. Musically though it's much heavier than most of what was coming out of mainstream-ish rock at that time - the only contemporary competitor in terms of all-out power is Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger, released a year prior. AiC distinguish themselves with their famous major third harmonies along with Cantrell's Sabbath-worship riffs. Staley's voice is also in top form here: one only needs to hear the all-timer performances on "Rain When I Die" and eternal banger "Would?" to confirm his place among the alt rock pantheon. Alice in Chains were always in a strange musical deadzone: too grunge to be metal, and too metal to be grunge. Oftentimes, those elements clashed against each other. On Dirt, however, AiC found a way to fuse all of their myriad influences - Sabbath-style riffing, fiery punk, morose balladry, and a touch of glam attention-seeking - into one era-defining artistic statement. One of the heaviest, most uncompromising records of the grunge era, and a pillar of alternative metal. Key Tracks: Them Bones, Rain When I Die, Down In a Hole Rooster, Would?

Saddest men in grunge. Vocal harmonies are awesome. Shit rips.

Ei oo tullu Chainsia ikinä kuunneltua, mutta onhan tää ihan jees. Ehkä enemmällä kuuntelulla vois nousta nelkuksikin, mutta tässä vaiheessa mennään kolmosella.

Iskä mitä se runke on? NO, se on nii monia juttuja. Aijaa. No onks se tirtti hyvä levy? NO VITTU ONHAN SE.

No ei kyllä lähtenyt yhtään. Ihan liian synkkää menoa itelle.

sempre la stessa cosa, sei incazzato ma con chi?

Tracks longer than 3:59: Too many Long tracks interesting or special: A couple yes, the rest no Album shorter than 58 minutes: Yes Will listen to again: Possibly Overall: This is not a genre I normally listen to, but I actually really liked this album. Probably won’t listen to it very often in the future, but if I am ever in the mood for this type of sound, I’ll probably reach for this album.

Grungy! 4/5.

Ditch the hairspray and makeup, let’s fly the flannel!

Kinda liked it

not a big metal person

Might be the best record from the Grunge era. 1M/5

The heaviest of the grunge big four, and easily in the top five albums of that scene. Powerful and consistent, closing with the standout Would?

A bit less than melodic. Sort of grates the nervous system. Rather not hear this again.

The best hard rock comes with an undertone of malice. A listener should feel a little uneasy thrill as the album unspools. Such as it is and has been since the Stones made their first deal with the Devil, G&R's skull faces on the cover of Appetite, Sabbath sludging out their detuned magic. And come the grunge era, there was Alice. Fucking timeless, this is -- every note pulled me back to my angsty, hard-drinking 20's. Just great musicianship tinged with dread and drugs and rotting apartments. Few folks have ever penned a harder line than "I want you to scrape me from the walls" in Dirt. Dark magicks lie within. So good. So very very good.

I never listened to a full album of Alice In Chains before. I know the singles from this album but not the rest of the songs. Well I enjoyed it. It's good album. Not a 5 out of 5 stars album. But a well deserved 4 stars album. So: 4/5

I had this on CD when it came out and think this still holds up. Favorite tracks: Down In A Hole, Them Bones, Would, Rooster

Better than expected. Early 90s rock.

Again, those who like it, like it.

One of the best of the era, just packed with hits and so much emotion. Easy 5 star just from the singles, the whole album is great