Songs like 'Junkhead' and 'God Smack' are very specifically about the band members' drug addictions (specifically heroin), while songs like 'Dirt' allude heavily to even more brooding images like death and suicide. The riffs devolve more into a slow grind, and the pain of the vocals and lyrics only increases as the record wears on. The pace of the track is akin to 'Sex Type Thing' by Stone Temple Pilots, and the chorus is equally aggressive and haunting.Īfter that's done though, welcome to musical hell. 'Dam That River' is the fastest song on the album (debatable with 'God Smack' later on the album), and also probably the most uplifting, although that certainly isn't saying much. All the instruments feel hollow, but it only represents the band all that much more. Uplifting start, huh? Anyway, this is supported by a bizarre 7/8 rhythm with the guitar work being downtuned to high heaven. Oddly enough, the experience begins with two of the most upbeat tracks, 'Them Bones' and 'Dam That River.' Starting with Layne Staley's high-pitched vocal bursts, 'Them Bones' is a song about our mortality it's basically speaking about how we're all going to die, and of course for everyone it will be inescapable. All of this is wrapped in a musical package that's so consistent and consistently intense that it's very hard to ignore. What we have here is a flawless collection of 90's metal classics, most of them laced with some of the most morbidly dark and flat-out honest songs written in their time. It's an album so sickening and yet so perfect an album so gloomy and yet so heavenly.

This brings us to their second offering, Dirt. Where Nirvana would tidy up their sound for 1991's Nevermind, this band wouldn't sacrifice how dirty and low their music was, no matter if they got popular or not. Between such maniacal singing and screaming, riffs buried in a huge mound of thick distortion, and such depressing thoughts of the world around them, it was clear that Alice in Chains were in a league of their own. It's a little ironic that Alice in Chains were considered such a popular force in grunge music, considering they were perhaps one of the most sludgy and vile bands of the 90's. Review Summary: The dust is rising and the sun is dying.Ĭhapter II: The Best of Darkness and Grime

Alice in chains dirt album review