Alice in Chains: Dirt
A follow-up to Alice In Chains’ full-length debut Facelift, Dirt builds on their angsty, stadium-sized sound that propelled them out of Seattle and onto the worldwide metal circuit. Although inevitably compared with their contemporaries and labelled as ‘grunge’, AIC’s style is heavier and has a more polished and proficient feel. The Seattle themes of Generation X disallusionment, emotional pain and excessive drug use are there in abundance, but Layne Staley’s distinctive vocals and Jerry Cantrell’s inticate soloing are the main reasons for this record being something out of the ordinary. Facelift gave ample evidence of this, but Dirt is a much darker record that takes this one step further and shows the cracks in both the rock ‘n’ roll dream and the band itself.
