Dirt

[admit that grunge hits wheelhouse] [reference lead singer’s death from overdose] [list other grunge and grunge-adjacent artists who died from overdose] [short aside about 27 club] [back on topic about constant energy of album] [mention awesome guitar work by guitarist] [allude to depressing topic of most of the songs] [concede to compulsion to rate album five stars]

An album like Dirt is catnip to critics because the music seems to match the life experience of its creators, which gives them an opening to talk about personalities instead of music. And sure enough, Dirt is relentlessly queasy, claustrophobic and tortured. But I can say that without having listened carefully to the lyrics--it's all in the music. How does Alice in Chains pull it off? They create disorientation through odd and shifting time signatures and sections which border on the atonal. The queasiness comes from guitarist Jerry Cantrell's guitar tone, which is typically swathed in reverb and flange, and the almost melismatic singing style of Layne Stanley, which is compounded whenever he doubles or triples his vocals in parallel voicings. The claustrophobia is achieved by allowing almost no empty spaces in the music. Even in the quieter moments, Dirt is a non-stop assault. When you add in the killer hooks from singles like Would?, Rooster, and Angry Chair, and you have the recipe for one of the great rock albums from the grunge era.

The perfect album to put on when I just want to feel like shit.

The grungy sameness of it all makes for difficult listening.

really not my thing, cringy vocals paired with boring, rigid and unvaried instrumentation.

Classic album from the grunge era. Excellent song writing with great melodies, harmonies, and heavy guitar sounds. The whole band sound fantastic on this record. Also one of the greatest opening riffs to any album, ever.

They literally rhyme "dam" with "damn"

knew i liked it - didn't remember how fucking much i liked it - shit was dope

Not as bad as expected but still awful.

This is pretty great and wished I'd heard it when I was younger; heavier than I was anticipating (sort of a sludge metal/grunge hybrid) with some absolute monster riffs - the opening 1-2-3 of Them Bones, Dam That River and Rain When I Die is unstoppable. Being an hour-long album largely about drug addiction with pretty grimey production, it can often be a bleak and difficult listen - especially knowing the eventual tragic fate of the lead singer Layne Staley. It may have been better being slightly shorter, but I honestly don't know what I'd cut - in isolation, there's not really a bad track here and it does flow very well. A strong 4/5. Favourite tracks: Them Bones / Dam That River / Junkhead

My favorite and most-played album of all time. Enough said. I was waiting to see how long until this one popped up for me. Every single song is a banger. It’s perfection. My first 5-star rating here.

Omg ooof. It's one of my sister's favorite bands but good lord oof.

I remember being scared of Alice in Chains when I was a kid, and having listened to it now, I was right to be scared. This is dark stuff, but I can appreciate them so much more now. Drugs suck. Them Bones is a perfect opening track. Really great work on that song. Sets the tone, awesome licks and the chorus is solid. Dam the River is an angry song. Then Rain When I Die is one bummer of a song. It could be taken to mean that he'll die right be fore the "rain" that could have saved him. Or it could just grunge angst about death and rain and darkness. As I read, I see that the two main songwriters, Jerry and Layne had a tumultuous relationship to say the least and Layne tended to write the darker, sadder, drug related stuff, and Jerry wrote about girls. Also, a girl named Demri apparently had quite a grip on Layne in some way. Down in a Hole sounds like a Layne song, and it's excellent. Great rock song that has elements of grunge, ballad, and alternative styles. As I write this I discovered I am wrong and Jerry wrote this about a girl named Courtney, but Layne singing it certainly fits his persona. Oof, Sickman is a drug song. Jesus, to be so aware of your addiction and express these thoughts only to inevitably fall victim to them is just so tragic. This song is so segmented; I think the idea here is to mirror the manic wildness of the high and then follow it with the self-loathing low afterwards. The video for "Rooster" tells you everything you need to know. Very important song for the band, and one that makes you think about war, parents, life, everything. Junkhead - another drug song, but a totally different take than Sickman. Sickman can be seen as a metaphorical journey, but Junkhead is on one hand an honest account of a user and on another an admittance of helplessness. Either way, it's dark as hell. What I did just read though makes this album amazing. A theory is that Junkhead, Dirt, God Smack, Iron Glad, Hate to Feel, and Would? are all an interconnected mini-concept album on the cycle of drugs. Listening to it that way made for a hell of a trip, and if it is indeed the point of this final suite, it makes the album far more epic.

One of the best 90s albums, but not for everyone, though. Angry, depressing, anxious. With really dark themes of addiction and self destruction, Dirt is a journey not meant for bright days. Memorable songs such as Them Bones, Rooster, and Would, these songs are still banged on rock radio today, and have inspired generations of new bands. To me, this is a time travel to the first time I listened to it. I remember Dam the river and down in a hole coming out of my headphones while walking to school. I don’t think there’s a lot more to say that has not need said before. Legendary

Such a classic album. Everything is on point here from the singing to the drums. One of the best grunge albums of all time

Brutal for me to get through. Most of it isn't terrible, just very uninteresting. It's in this spot between a lot of styles that could sound good, but here it just falls flat. Keep Alice locked up if this is the best she has to offer. Favorite tracks: Rooster. Album art: She's in the dirt. Okay. 1.5/5

Holy shit I can't believe I forgot how much I love Alice In Chains. This albums fucks from front to back. Some amazing hits here like Rooster and Would? sprinkled throughout but also some lesser hits that I love like Down in a Hole. There are a couple of tracks that I think I could do without on a re-listen but this is my favorite grunge sound for sure. I liked almost every song on here just because of the sound they manage to land on. 9/10

i dont like these album choices, every album i listened to i didn't like or hated probably gonna stop with this website

You would think someone who likes Pearl Jam as I do would also like this, but I've never been a fan. Something about the vocals and the style of guitar playing. Similar to the reasons I don't like Metallica. I can see the appeal of this for some, but not for me. 2 stars.

I'm allergic to dude singing. I just am. I get why people are into it, but I hate this shit.

Listened to it once, will never probably listen to it again.

Top 3 albums from the Seattle Scene, an absolute stone cold 6 out of 5 record. Perfect harmonies, perfect riffs, perfect solos, perfectly miserable.

I was about to go to sleep, but this album had me just so hyped that I wasn't able to for another 2 hours, I love it, possibly the best grunge album of all time, yes, I think it's better than nevermind.

Not my personal cup of tea but is a very well made album

What can I say, I grew up with this. The tragic themes and despairing sound somehow resonated with a kid who really had things pretty good, but was trying to figure out the uncertainty of teenage years. The sound is unique and consistent from start to finish. The worst song on the album is only the worst because it’s awesome and overplayed. I’ll still gladly listen to it for the 100,000th time.

Dark, heavy, badass, angry. I loved AIC and this album as a teenager. Bone crushing guitar work, awesome vocals, really cool use of vocal harmonies to darken the sound even more. Favorite song: Would?

Perfect Agony

Murky, sinister and sounds massive. Also rocks

Really didn't like this felt like a chore.

I have this already blocked on Spotify

🤢 no. Not for me.

I'm learning that my 90s instinct was not wrong. I knew of this album. I'd heard "Would?" and quite liked that. But I steered well away from the album. Listening to Dirt now, it's really full-on, the loud Jerry 'n' Layne's loud chiming voices powering in unison, emphasising things that don't need emphasis. At times there's a camp delight to the lyrics, the earnest adolescent subject matter. But the whole album was a lot to consume in one sitting and it doesn't inspire a repeat listen.

Couldn’t get through this. Not a fan

(5/5) I vividly remember discovering this as a young teen. A kid brought it to an overnight Scout event at the sponsor church. It was love at first sight (and listen) for me. It best epitomized the word 'grunge' than basically any other band from that era. It's music designed to make you uncomfortable and I **loved** playing this one loud. It has a 'dirty' sound that just floods your ears. Staley's vocals and the guitar work are incredible and the subject matter touched my dark, little heart. A re-listen just confirmed it. This was an important piece from its era and a classic record. A 'must listen' if I've **ever** heard one.

"I want you to scrape me / from the walls / and go crazy / like you've made me" One of my absolute favorite albums of all time, by one of my absolute favorite bands of all time. Jerry Cantrell's muddy, sludgy guitar riffs blended so effectively with Layne Staley's hauntingly iconic vocals, painting a unique portrait of the pain, rage and angst that defined the grunge movement of the early 90s. Lyrically, Staley's unflinching portrayal of heroin addiction, blended almost seamlessly with Cantrell's outside-looking-in observations of his friend's heartbreaking anguish, created an atmosphere that few artists have ever achieved, and the knowledge of Staley's passing and the circumstances around it only heighten the effect. If you don't connect to the material or this just isn't for you, it's forgivable, but it doesn't diminish this albums standing within rock history. It's a 10/5 for me that I guess I'll round down to 5 because I have to.

be for real, I got this shit memorized

This album could've just been 30 minutes of white noise and Rooster, and It'd still be great. Instead, you get to hear an hour of sick riffs and self-deprecation through a haunting voice. What an album.

Loved every second of this album. Always thought Alice in Chains would be too heavy for me and didn't give them a chance, but this was the perfect blend of eerie, dark, intimate, and foreboding. Just truly fucking epic and awesome. This is the kind of album I had hoped to discover through this platform

Cantrell and Staley are the single best 2-man combo in music, and this album is their peak (except maybe Facelift or Jar of Flies, depending on the day). 5/5.

A fuse of metal and grunge that brought Alice In Chains to the mainstream. For a mainstream record in the 90s though, this was a pretty stark and gnarly album. I do like Layne Staley’s voice and quite a few of the songs, but some of them just don’t have the memorability that I thought they might have. I still tend to prefer Nirvana and Soundgarden over AIC. Favorite song: Rooster Least favorite song: Hate to Feel

Run-of-the-mill metal. Why is this on the list? There's nothing remotely important or special about this.

This sucked. Beyond the really dark subject matter Alice In Chains took the worst aspects of 80s Hair Metal and Grunge and mashed them together. The result it a mess of crap.

No surprise that this band is also from Seattle, the vocals sound a lot like Kurt Cobain, or maybe that's just part of the Grunge formula. Though the music here sounds more metal-leaning than Nirvana. The vocals sound pretty goofy at points, not gonna lie. I don't think the Grunge edginess has aged well in all cases. All the songs sound the same too, none of them really stand out in any significant way, except maybe the first song. Not sure I needed to hear this before I die.

Not for me. A hard listen.

This heavy rock (metal) has never been my cup of tea. One or two redeeming songs I thought.

It's up there with Nevermind for best grunge album. It's certainly "grungier" than Nirvana and it's done well.

Variety: 4 Adequacy: 5 Listenability: 5 Uniqueness: 5 Emotionality: 5 = 4.8 rounded up to a 5 "Oh, you don't understand who they thought I was supposed to be/ Look at me now, a man who won't let himself be" By the time this was on my radar I was all in on Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Alice in Chains I was mainly familiar with through teh "Man in the Box" video, which at that point maybe creeped me out a bit too much. The hits from this got regular play though, and I would hear them all the time. Really liked them, but never investigated a full album from the band til much later in the 90s, well after grunge had started to die down. Same for Soundgarden. When I did finally get around to it though I was pretty danged impressed, and the love for the band made a lot more sense. They have only risen in my estimation over the years and they're toe to toe with Nirvana in my opinion as far as the depth of great songs in their catalog. Still love Pearl Jam, but seemed a slow downhill ride after Ten, and Soundgarden I've still never really connected to outside their hits. Have been looking forward to revisiting this one. THE TRACKS "Them Bones" - Holy shit. That's up there with the best opening statements on any album. Dark as you can get, but also as hummable. Many a time I've had this ear worm stuck in my head. Luckily there'll be plenty more opportunities to replace it on this thing. Also of note is that guitar tone. Cantrell is up there with Brian May in that dept for me. This track ( and a few more before we're done) belong on any respectable list of the best songs of the decade. "Dam That River" - This was one I'm not sure I ever heard until I gave this album a full listen. Not sure it ever got any radio play, at least not around me. A damn fine deep cut ( to me anyway) that loses none of the energy of the first track, but doesn't quite reach the top tier. "Rain When I Die" - I did somehow hear this one though. I think so anyway. It just sounds like it's always been there. Maybe there was a music video? People always talk about how Chris Cornell's voice was used like an instrument in Soundgarden. The same could be said about Staley, and this is as good an example as any. Some of the heaviest riffing on an album of heavy riffs. This is kind of a lowkey showcase track for the band, and I could easily imagine this is a LOT of people's favorite track on the album, even with the competition it has. "Down in a Hole" - Another all time classic. And the first inkling we get that the band is just as good ( if not better) at more downtempo more thoughtful material. Another one for that best of the 90s list. The iconic Staley vocal performance for me. And don't forget the harmonies. Cantrell and Staley together were magic. "Sickman" - Another very solid deep cut. If I were forced to drop a track from the album though, gun to my head... this might be it. It's very plodding and Sabbathy in parts than a lot of their material, and it's worth noting Rob Zombie must have LOVED this song. Just sayin. There's a lot going on here. A lot. So much that it often feels like a few songs stitched together. "Rooster" - My favorite song on the album, and a contender for my favorite Alice in Chains song. And that best of the 90s list? This one makes the top ten of that easy. Haunting, full of hooks, and hard as fuck when the tension is released towards the end. "Junkhead" - Another fine example of how good these guys still are with their "B" material. I think some people tend to overlook the band's metallic tendencies, and this is a good example if you really want to see how they dovetail up against sludge metal. "Dirt" - The repeating riff at the beginning of this one is as memorable as anything they ever did, but I never heard this one on the radio, and only very occasionally hear it in the age of satellite radio. That riff and Staley's vocal modelody almost seem to circle each other for the length of the track, joining up in the whirlpool of the chorus. "God Smack" - Other than being lifted for the name of a far inferior band, this one seems almost like a template for the sort of weirdo vocal gymnastics that System of a Down would run with a few years later. Decent stuff, but doesn't grab me like most of the other stuff on this one. "Untitled"/ "Hate to Feel" - A direct shout out to Sabbath opens this little interlude up, and is really the only thing worth noting about it. It does lead directly into "Hate to Feel" which has a distinctly Iommi-ish riffing embedded within, which was maybe the point. "Angry Chair" - This largely succeeds in ways that "Sickman" didn't despite also having a lot of disparate elements, all of which are woven together into a much more cohesive sound here. "Would?" - Ending on an all-timer. Best harmonies on the album, hands down. "Rooster" just barely edges this one out as the favorite for me. And let's give the rhythm section their due here. This is the band firing on all cylinders as a unit. Perfect. HIGHLIGHTS - "Them Bones" - "Dam That River" - "Rain When I Die" - "Down in a Hole" - "Rooster" - "Junkhead" - "Dirt" - "Angry Chair" - "Would?" MIDLIGHTS - "Sickman" - "God Smack" - "Hate to Feel" LOWLIGHTS - FINAL THOUGHTS So this is as good a place as any to talk about the place this band, and other big 3 grunge acts hold in my mind. I love comparing things, and these bands give me a great opportunity to do so in regards to what place they hold in the popular culture. My baseline here - and it's a completely subjective and unoriginal one - is that every decade is a lt more interesting when you play the game of filling the archetypal spots originally occupied by the big four British invasion bands. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Kinks are a template that can be expounded upon and argued about and I absolutely will waste some time doing so now. Skipping over the 70s ( we'll get there when some Floyd and Zeppelin start showing up) and the 80s ( this one gets difficult) and heading straight to the 90s, I like to break it down as follows: The Beatles = Nirvana: Endless wells of melody-first pop forward construction The Rolling Stones = Pearl Jam: More straight forward arena friendly, and hooks aplenty anchored by charismatic singers The Who = Alice in Chains: The principal bandleader, primary songwriter, lead guitarist and driving force of the band took a backseat to a charismatic unique vocalist in their performances, full of anger and darkness, more so than most anyway The Kinks: Soundgarden I guess? Lead vocalist who played rhythm guitar, and was primary songwriter. Put out offbeat, sometimes uncategorizable stuff that separated them from the other big three. Listen, this is not an exact science. Just a bit of fun. The point being that Alice in Chains was important. One of the prime shapers of a movement that changed music, if just for a little while. And these guys were up there with the best songwriters of their time. I think Cobain just barely beats them i that he was more or less a one man Lennon/ McCartney and was solidly more radio friendly and courted mass appeal, despite what he may have claimed. Alice in Chains was a bit more of a two-headed monster in that respect, and never developed as cultish of a fanbase I think. I can imagine plenty of people were sad when Layne Staley died, but he was never the icon. Dirt, some of their self-titled, Jar of Flies, and their MTV Unplugged session was maybe the finest run of any of those bands, and the band remain radio staples to this day because of that output. Their sludgy, doomy brand of downer rock belies their deeply melodic and layered craftsmanship, and there's no lack of beautiful songs. It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility that they overtake Nirvana for me eventually. PLAYLIST ALTERATIONS - Nah FURTHER LISTENING - Temple of the Dog by Temple of the Dog - Core by Stone Temple Pilots - Around the Fur by Deftones - Above by Mad Season

“Into the flood again, Same old trip it was back then.” Grunge is the soundtrack for when I became a teenager. It will forever be a sound that takes me back to those early 90s years. I have over the years had my phases with the big four of grunge. During its height and immediately after it was Soundgarden the most, then in college my preference was a mix of Nirvana & Pearl Jam, but down the stretch of my life I've found I return to Alice in Chains the most. In his "60 Songs that Explain the 90s" podcast, host Rob Harvilla broke it down like this, "Alice In Chains are not the biggest or most culturally significant band to emerge from Seattle in the late 80s, early 90s That's Nirvana, silly. They are not turn of the decade Seattle's fanciest band in the musical sense, or the city's most Uber masculine band in the classic Led Zeppelin 70s hotel room defiling sense. That's Soundgarden. They are certainly not turn of the decade, Seattle's most enduring band in any commercial or emotional sense. That's Pearl Jam. But Alice and Chains, to my mind, are the heaviest, the darkest, the crunchiest of the Seattle gods." This is the why, I think. The mix of Jerry Cantrell's deep bluesy drawn out guitar riffs along with Layne Staley's immortally brooding vocals. Has ever a pair been this creatively suited for each other. Paul & John? Dre & Snoop? Jack Black & Kyle Gass? Sorry, that may be the most frivolous this review gets. The material doesn't leave a lot of room for frivolity. This album means a lot to me. This album says a lot to me, and I was never a drug user. Still, "Down in a Hole" can haunt me anytime it is played. "Them Bones" is as heavy as a Black Sabbath riff and is quite the opening thesis. "Would?" is the final culmination of an album full of drug fueled disconsolate gloom. It is a a no skips album and I could've done this review by memory. "Rooster" for sure could've been done by memory as my only complaint about this album may be the number of time my local rock station played "Rooster." That may be the only Alice in Chains track that I ever had enough of. Thanks ZRock 103! So why do I find myself gravitating toward Alice in Chains more in middle-age? Being Gen-X grunge is in my collective psyche. Also, I think it is the definition of timelessness to be able to connect with the youth of a generation but to also create something that remains relevant throughout the mad seasons of their life. Again, I think it is the crushing gravity of Layne Staley's voice in the delivery of the lyrics. I find Alice in Chains mean more to me in my forties than they did in my teens. It is a phenomena that makes me sad this will be their only entry on the list. Jar of Flies may be a greater album than this, but at an EP it didn't meet the criteria. Still, highly recommend it. Things that do not interest me, however, are comparing grunge era acts on who were actually grunge or not. Alice In Chains were a pillar of the Seattle sound no matter their hair metal origins. Dirt has an argument as a quintessential album of its time. Yeah, Alice In Chains were heavy and this album is dark. It is brooding over crunchy guitar riffs that will draw you down into the depths with them. Jerry Cantrell is good at what he does. Sean Kinney is good at what he does. Layne Staley was good at what he did. Mike Star was good at what he did. I count myself luck that the early 1990s were my formative musical years. 5/5.

Alice in Chains is one of the first bands I ever got into, thanks in part to "Them Bones" appearing on the Guitar Hero II soundtrack. They're one of the more notable bands to be associated with the Seattle grunge scene, even though their sound is more rooted in heavy metal. That much is apparent from listening to their 1992 magnum opus, Dirt. Right from the get-go with the aforementioned "Them Bones", the sound is established with down-tuned, pummelling guitar riffs from Jerry Cantrell, equally heavy basslines from Mike Starr, pulse-pounding drums from Sean Kinney, and Layne Staley's soaring vocals. Layne even harmonized well with Jerry as they shared vocal duties across the record. It's a menacing sound while still maintaining a sense of melody, harkening back to the doom metal sound that Black Sabbath established decades prior, to the point where they even parody the opening of "Iron Man" on the "Untitled" track alongside Slayer vocalist Tom Araya. That said, they do dial back the energy occasionally to build an atmosphere, such as with the power ballad "Down in a Hole" or the slow-burning "Rooster". It certainly helps that the band also touched upon a variety of subjects in the lyrics. While the Black Sabbath comparisons continue with songs that tackle drug addiction in a forewarning light on cuts like "God Smack" and "Junkhead", there's also facing the inevitability of death on "Them Bones", band infighting with "Dam That River", relationship turmoils on "Rain When I Die", the dedication from Jerry Cantrell to his then-girlfriend Courtney Clarke on "Down in a Hole", the equally heartfelt tribute to Jerry's father who served in the Vietnam War on "Rooster", finishing with the ultimate confrontation on "Would?" that also served as a tribute to the late Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone. Jerry Cantrell's songwriting shone brilliantly on this album. Though not to be outdone, Layne Staley also did an excellent job with the harrowing anguish on "Hate to Feel" and the spiteful disgust at stagnation on "Angry Chair". Dirt is an amazing record from front to back, where I found myself singing and jamming along to these tracks. It's a fun record despite the harrowing lyrics, proving Alice in Chains to be a household name.

what is there not to say about this album. its a very personal album for me. as someone who has struggled with addiction and have had someone in my family struggle with addiction as well this album hits very close to home. songs like down in a hole and junkman and dirt paint a depressing picture of somebody who no longer feels like they belong and that their wings have been clipped. i do have my favorites on this album but i generally love every song on this album its easily a no skip. angry chair is another really great song of pure hatred and regret. with those disgusting drums in the background and laynes vocals belting out about his little angry chair and walls that distill the air. oh my god its perfect if you have not listened to this album please do.

hadn't listened to this before, but have loved other Alice in Chains projects. this is really an incredible work of grunge music. acutely feeling the vacuum left behind by Layne Staley now. those guitars sound unbelievable.

Alice in Chains sneak up on you, man. you go in expecting to bear witness to all the sins of grunge, and at first it seems like that with the metal riffs and the lyrics, but then you realize how much Layne Staley's voice sticks out from other vocalists in the genre. he's got this great sense of melody, knowing just when to turn on the juice, when to go low, and when to bring in Jerry for the harmonies. it's insane. then, around that, you find that you like the other parts of the songs, from the riffs to the lyrics being some of the better in the genre, and then at some point you start asking yourself, almost fearful: "is Alice in Chains better than Nirvana?" i feel like the answer's still no, but i don't think there was ever a need for either band to be better than one another. truly, it's apples and oranges. Nirvana was punk filtered through the sludgy trends of the late 80's before being reconstructed for radio and deconstructed for the unfortunate finale. Alice in Chains seem much more straight-ahead in their approach than their contemporaries. they take the hard rock of the 70's, crank the knobs, and add some real vulnerability into the mix. i'm sorry but if you don't feel anything in the last moments of "Would?" you might actually be a psychopath. apparently the Cameron Crowe movie "Singles" (never seen it) has Alice in Chains as one of the bands the main characters goes to see. one of said protagonists says that they're gonna go "out dancing". i get the feeling this line was written before Crowe actually had heard Alice in Chains, because who dances to Alice in Chains? is it possible? has anyone swayed with their partner to the swingin' sounds of "Rooster"?

I came in on Facelift and thought that was great. Then this came out. Goodnight nurse. A masterpiece of the 90's. I saw them in '93 at Lollapalooza and should've seen them in '94. By then Layne's issues were causing show cancellations. This album was superb then and still holds up now. Makes me want to play Madden '93 on Sega.

Great album! I’m a big fan of Alice In Chains.

OMMMMGGG

The best, hands down, the best album of the 90s. The beginning of one of the most influential bands of my childhood.

I've been excited to get this album because I've only heard Rooster and if a fucking great song came off the album, it's gotta be good. That turned out to be pretty good logic because this album slaps. It's an excellent balance of grunge and more metal stuff and Layne Staley's vocals are just amazing. Rooster remains the top track but them bones, would?, and down in a hole are all also worthy of a podium.

Is it depressing? Yes. Is it great? Hell yes! Arguably the best grunge album of the era. Slow, heavy, claustrophobic, relentless. So damn good. Would? remains one of my favourite songs of the 90s. A classic!

As a teenager in the 2000s, I was obsessed with grunge. For years, I was convinced I was "born in the wrong generation" or whatever. However through all that, I think Alice in Chains were a bit too dark for me, I was always more into Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Then when I went to college, this album really clicked with me, as I got into darker music and films. I watched their Unplugged concert and it really moved me. Layne Staley seemed to have been struggling so much, but he distilled his essence into this album and created a timeless work of art. It's an incredibly sad thing to see an artist at work who had the skill to produce something that essentially made him immortal, yet his life was literally falling apart. It also seems a shame that his addiction was made so public, but no one was able to step to intervene enough to save him. However that is unfortunately the nature of addiction I suppose. Musically, this album is incredible; the vocal harmonies are fantastic (once you get used to Layne's unusual voice), the guitar wails with ferocity, and the bass and drums sweep you along for the ride. It really creates a soundscape that draws you in. As soon as I finished the last track I felt like diving in again. Like an addiction I guess?

I remember taking a trip to Romania back in the mid-nineties with my best friend Frosty Ian. After guzzling at least a dozen dark beers, we found ourselves in the backroom of a dingey, smoked filled bar. Alice in Chains was playing which really brought the mood down. Ian was in a bad way and sank deeper into a battered up old sofa with every swig he took. I was slurring my words and dribbling all over the ear and neck of a washed up barmaid with a pair of tits like a broken accordion and a fanny like a crow's deathbed. She must have been desperate for some action, because before we knew it she was straddling Ian's rigid length, whilst I tried to thumb my soft cock into her cesspit of a gob. This broad loved it and squealed as we both jizzed in her eyes. She scrambled round like a maltreated Stevie Wonder, as Ian and I high fived and wiped her blood from our faces and penises. We headed off into the night laughing and making wise cracks about the monstrous rogering we just gave that disgusting troll.

Too much, and not enough to say.

1992 was a crazy good year for music, and Dirt is a strong contender for best album of 1992. Every song on Dirt is a banger, there arent ANY weak tracks. Its also one of the clearest "cries for help" you'll ever hear. 5/5

Yeah, Alice in Chains is always cool

Most depressing album ever? At least of the grunge era which is not a small thing... A masterpiece in any case...

I really do like Alice in Chains. This is a punishing record though.

Great album, Shid day. My car ist overheat.

Well that took me right back to living in a shared house in Leicester and cranking this right up when getting home from work. Brilliant stuff!

Alice In Chains was easily my favorite band as a teenager in the early 90’s. I was obsessed. I’ve probably listened to this album hundreds of times in my life. Alice In Chains were, in my opinion, the most interesting of the Seattle bands. They were set apart from the rest because of Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell’s excellent vocal harmonies and their proficiency with both acoustic and electric songwriting - they were just as engaging on their acoustic songs as they were when they went into full grunge mode: Jar of Flies would be an easy 5 for me. So, Dirt is going to get a high rating based off that alone. Dirt’s biggest fault is that the highs are really high and the songs that don’t hit those highs are pretty mediocre and drag the whole thing down. You could cut this album down by 10 or 15 minutes and it would easily be in contention for one of the greatest albums of all time. Cut Sickman, Iron Gland (totally unnecessary), Hate to Feel, and maybe God Smack too. It’s still a great record and I still like a lot of these songs (a rarity for me regarding a lot of the music of my youth), but as an album experience, it could be a little leaner.

i would like to hear more from these guys

This albums goes hard.

The classic discography of Alice in Chains has playfully been described as a “freefall into depression and despair,” culminating with their self-titled album in 1995. “Dirt” marks the tipping point when the freefall begins, and does so with some HEAVY stuff. Not just lyrics, either. From the opening riffs from “Them Bones” you know that the album will be bogged in the mire, with downtuned, sludgy metal riffs that fit perfectly with the despotic and distortion-heavy Grunge style. Here Alice in Chains brings a fresh look on Grunge, adding heavy metal sensibilities and distortion to make the record seem sluggish and pitiful, despite being filled with energy. A great album to put on when you need the opposite of a pick-me-up: a let-me-down. Standout Songs: “Them Bones” “Dam That River” “Rooster” “Would?”

Metal meets grunge!

Alice In Chains nous prouve encore une fois que faire du heavy metal tout en ayant une belle voix nasale, c'est possible.

Not really my cup of tea, I can appreciate grunge but usually in small doses. I can hear this is a well made album that deals with dark stuff like addiction and depression, and has good instrumentation, but it's just too muddy with sort of droning vocals. That being said, I do really like Rooster, and Nutshell (not on this album) is in my rotation. Kind of depressed divorced dad rock vibes. Maybe I'd appreciate this album more if i was more depressed or going through a darker time haha. Standouts: Rooster, Would? Rating: 3/5

Iconic sound from my adolescence. Perhaps due to this nostalgia, I did not tire of the songs. I welcomed the change up to a harder sound!

Not catchy enough to be good, not metal enough to go hard. Just a dirgy middle ground

As a huge grunge fan, Alice In Chains has always been my least favorite of the big 4 bands of that era. I never cared for Layne Staley’s voice until I heard Mad Seasons, in which he is excellent. Alice In Chain’s music is dark, boring, simple, and a drag. It’s moody in a way (that with the combined vocals) sounds mopey and judgmental. It’s what I’d imagine it sounds like if you were to crawl into a cat’s brain. Soundgarden did heavy and angry better. Man, even Nirvana and Pearl Jam had songs that hit harder than this, even though that’s not what they were known for. This just sounds too close to the last gasp of 80’s hair metal where the band went darker and never learned to play very interesting songs.

I've never rated this band, and they sound permanently out of tune to me. I feel like they take the worst parts of the three other big grunge bands and fuse them together. Nirvana had some humour and self-awareness to temper the whining and sombre themes, Pearl Jam could be stodgy and plodding but they had an activism and a zeal about rock and roll and Soundgarden were metal adjacent but at least had efficiency when it came to a composition. This has also aged terribly compared to all of the above acts. I think Would? is actually alright but that comes right at the end of an overlong. I've heard a couple of acoustic things by them too which I think is where they almost begun to redeem themselves, but ultimately I think they are about as important in musical history as Creed.

Well, I already knew I wasn’t a big fan of this band, but I gave the whole album a listen for the first time in 20 years… and still don’t like this band. There are some bangers on here from the long lost grunge era (“Rooster” being by far the best song), but the high school poetry and dismal riffs don’t do much for me. The strange, dark vocal harmonies were a positive that stood out to me (incredibly unique) and served the songs well, but as someone who never worshipped at the altar of Black Sabbath, this album and band still aren’t my cup of tea.

It's a particular heavy sound I just don't like. Not much subtlety in the songwriting. Pretty monotone and dreary, without melancholy. If this is what heroin addiction feels like, I'm not missing much.

if men had their period and wrote music about it

Not really my cup of tea vocally. Some decent tunes though

Somehow I missed out on this band during their heyday. I got into the other bigger ones from the Era (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden) and must have figured I was all set. But I saw Singles a million times and knew "Would" from that movie. It's bizarre, I love Nirvana and Pearl Jam and like some other grunge acts. But this one for me is just OK. Two good songs.

Even though many of the tracks are 3 minutes, they feel like they go on forever… struggle to get thought this…

Should have stayed buried

One of those albums where you have heard what it has to say three songs in, and honestly that's more than you really needed. Wearing edge nonsense.

Dirt was my first time listening to Alice in Chains. I went in expecting something dark, grungy, and heavy — and that’s exactly what I got. Grunge, hard rock, and metal aren’t usually my genres, so I suspected this wouldn’t be for me. I still gave it a fair try, but I struggled to get through it in one sitting. The album feels very one-note, with little variation in sound or mood, and I often found my attention drifting. Favourite track: None — this style just isn’t my thing. Least favourite track: Honestly, all of it. I won’t be revisiting this one. Album artwork: Not something I’d want on my wall.

2/13 songs added to playlist Best song: Down in a Hole

Tråkigt LOL!

I never quite got on board with the hype surrounding the various "grunge" bands. Don't get me wrong, I like them, but perhaps not as much as others did or do. However, this was not the case with Alice in Chains. Firstly, Alice In Chains are heavy as hell, but in the 1970s sense of hard rock and metal. From the off, you can hear the influence of Black Sabbath, both in the down-tuned, sludgy guitar arrangements and in the vocal melodies of Layne Staley, which are highly reminiscent of Ozzy Osbourne. Staley was a magnificent vocalist, and as much as I love Ozzy, Staley was a far better singer - as demonstrated beautifully on 'Rain When I Die'. 'Rooster' is a stunning song; the dynamics are superbly executed, and the vocals are off the chart. The harmony vocals, often doubled by Jerry Cantrell, are also not to be underestimated. Cantrell's writing is superb on this album, as he penned most of the music and lyrics. That is even before mentioning his guitar contributions. He managed to create a style that was incredibly heavy without relying on the flashy, high-speed shredding that dominated the late 1980s. Instead, his uniqueness comes from a brilliant mix of rhythm, texture, and doing the unexpected. The rhythm section of Mike Starr and Sean Kinney is phenomenal on this album too, acting as the anchor for Cantrell’s shifting time signatures. Rather than playing standard, driving rock, Kinney brings a jazz-influenced swing, whilst Starr’s thick, grinding bass tone drives the songs forward. For evidence of this, one only needs to listen to the menacing, lock-step groove of the title track, the hypnotic pulse of 'Angry Chair', or the brilliant, looping bassline that opens 'Would?'. "Dirt" is a dark and intense listening experience, but one that is executed with exceptional musicianship and song-writing discipline. At the time it stood out from the crowd, and it still does. Five stars. 1 "Them Bones" (5/5) 2 "Dam That River" (5/5) 3 "Rain When I Die" (5/5) 4 "Sickman" (4/5) 5 "Rooster" (5/5) 6 "Junkhead" (5/5) 7 "Dirt" (5/5) 8 "God Smack" (4/5) 9 "Intro (Dream Sequence)" (4/5) 10 "Hate to Feel" (4/5) 11 "Angry Chair" (5/5) 12 "Down in a Hole" (5/5) 13 "Would?" (5/5) Total - 61 Average - 4.69 338/1001 183/338 albums reviewed were new to me.

I listened to Alice in Chains a lot in high school, to an almost agonizing degree. I would start my day, every school day, listening to music about wasted potential and drug addiction, suicide and misery. I quickly got diagnosed and wised up that living that way was making getting out of bed each morning more difficult than it needed to be. I do not mention this to bring this album down, or to state that it's themes are one note and only suitable for teenage sad-sackery. (Not unwarrented sad-sackery, for the record. It wasn't about girls or cars, I was struggling, but it was still no doubt draining and partially self-inflicted.) I want to highlight the opposite, actually: in getting out of high school, listening to more varied types of music, and giving myself room to breathe, I found coming back to this album emotionally cathartic and deeply rewarding. I believe almost everybody comes back to some of the music they consumed in their younger and more vulnerable years with a bit of embarrassment. I mention that to say that there is nothing embarrasing about this album: it is a testament to fantastic songwriting, to pain, to a good drummer and a good bass tone. It's a concept album about not getting any better, it starts with death and ends with forgiveness, forgiveness it may or may not have even earned. It is usually weak criticism to link the dead musicians to the sad songs they wrote, something that should be saved for middling Cobain biographies and high school essays about Nick Drake. But Staley (a bluesman by reason of pain and timing) and Cantrell (a de facto pick for grunge rock god, a genre that didn't accommodate well to writing sweet songs about your dad or playing metal guitar solos) May just be the 90s Lennon / McCartney. Junk-age pop geniuses, helping all the lonely people figure out where they belong. (That may not be the best example, considering Lennon and McCartney famously argued about who wrote that song for years, but the line is still good, right? Right? Bite me, I thought it was good.) I think the reason it's so easy to link the artists to their various vices as portrayed on this record is because of how lived in these themes feel: the 90s had no shortage of albums about hating yourself (most likely ushered in by this band... god knows they ushered in the yelpy "YEAH" that all of the post-grunge slop artists borrowed) but depth is the name of the game here. It's not just music to overdose to (or a major label equivalent) it has nuance and bite. "I've eaten the sun / so my tongue has been burned of the taste" existing in the same song as "I'd like to fly / but my wings have been so denied" is pure fugging genius, especially when the song itself is mixed and mastered like Icarus just now feeling the heat on his wings. But they aren't one trick ponies... it isn't all heroin and yelling (not that that would be a bad thing, or something to take lightly.) The band go a lot of different places, and they go through all of them naturally. Hard rockers exist alongside slower cuts, thoughtful and downright experimental song structures in between the best singles 1992 had to offer. The drumming tosses you around, and lays a nauseating and dense sort of rhythm that keeps the band in line. The bassist acts similarly, knowing when to hold 'em and when to let Layne and Jerry do their (respective and also collaborative) thing. I am not in high school anymore, and I am thankful for that fact everyday. But I am also thankful that I once was, that it weathered me a bit and helped me come to love music as I do now. I am also deeply thankful that this album doesn't suck, and that revisiting it may have actually made it better than I originally thought. Smarter, at the very least.

Iisisti top-5 -levyjä maailmassa. Ei taas asteikko riitä arvostelemaan, eli 7/5.

Ah, a timeless classic from the grungiest of grunge. The mood AiC provides is unmatched, and nothing beats Layne’s vocal. I do kinda like Facelift more for some of the songs, but I will say this one is the most Alice-in-chainy album overall.

5 goat goat goat goat. Not their best album but one of the best.

Now we’re talkin’. This is a top 3 Seattle album for me. Early side of the grunge releases and between Layne & Jerry you have two of the most talented members of the scene. Track by track, this 💿 does not miss.

This is the one grunge album I actually like.

Amazing

Grunge was largely a geographical movement rather than a musical one. Yes, the Seattle bands were part of a scene, one that drove a stake through the heart of the increasingly ridiculous hair metal bands, but there were as many differences in sound as there were similarities - Nirvana were a punk band, Pearl Jam a rock band, Soundgarden and, especially, Alice In Chains, pretty much metal bands, and Dirt is a metal album, a great one. It's a dark, scary record full of Sabbath-y riffs, Doomy, Sludgey grooves. Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell harmonise so closely that their voices meld, delivering a unique vocal sound. 'Them Bones', 'Sickman', 'Rooster', 'Down In a Hole', 'Angry Chair' and 'Would' stand out but there isn't a below-par (shouldn't that be over-par, golfers?) track here. Stunning album. Unfortunately, Staley lived the life these songs described and the life took him 10 years later...

One of my favorites coming into this. AIC rules.

Awesome album, I've actually never listed to Alice in Chains but I'm excited to listen to more of them!