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Alice In Chains' 'Dirt,' the Era's Most Nihilistic Album, Turns 25
Alice in Chains photographed in July 1991
If you visit Dictionary.com and search the term “grunge,” you’ll find that this “movement in rock music” is “characterized by aggressive, nihilistic songs.”
Therefore, Alice in Chains are, by definition, the grungiest of the grunge bands. Of the three others in the ranks of Seattle’s Big Four, Soundgarden, who played loud (but arty, melodic and, at times, beautiful) music, would come in second. Pearl Jam, with its moody, classic rock-indebted sound, would land in third. And Nirvana,
who essentially played a noisy version of pop-punk (in the best sense
of both words), isn’t even from Seattle (they’re from Aberdeen, of
course) and detested their inclusion in a genre so glaringly coined for
marketing purposes. So Kurt Cobain and Co. would be a distant
fourth. Alice in Chains are the Kings of Grunge, and today (Sept. 29)
their hit sophomore album, Dirt, turns 25 years old. There is no more nihilistic or aggressive album of the era.
Heroin
and other drug addictions played a major part in the Seattle/grunge
music scene; many bands used and/or were inspired by its destruction.
But no other band so blatantly addressed its dark spiral, both lyrically
and musically.
In 1989, on the strength of a demo tape, Alice in
Chains -- singer/songwriter Layne Staley, guitarist/songwriter Jerry
Cantrell, drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Starr -- signed with
Columbia Records. Soon they entered Seattle’s London Bridge Studios to
record their debut LP, Facelift, which arrived in August 1990.
Its sound was heavy and brooding, rife with metal guitar riffs and
Staley’s sorrowful wailing. Already the band was addressing their
narcotic affliction -- the lead single, “We Die Young,” was about
10-year-old dealers in Seattle. This theme would be front and center for
their follow up, Dirt.
By early ‘92, all of the band members were struggling with various
substance and/or mental issues: Staley with heroin; Kinney and Starr
with alcohol addiction; and Cantrell with substance abuse and clinical
depression following the deaths of his mother as well as his friend,
Andrew Wood. Staley had recently checked out of rehab, but had returned
to using heroin by the time recording sessions were underway in Los
Angeles and Seattle, between March and May ‘92. This caused significant
tension, especially between Staley and producer Dave Jerden, who also
helmed Facelift.
In June, the album track “Would?” appeared on the soundtrack to the Cameron Crowe movie Singles, which chronicled struggling musicians in Seattle. It gave a further spotlight to the band and their sound, and when Dirt arrived
on Sept. 29, 1992, it proved to be their breakthrough release, peaking
at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and remaining on the chart for 106 weeks.
It's essentially a concept album on the pains of drug addiction, and its
opening track was a shot straight to the arm -- “Them Bones” is pure
terror, with Staley’s spine-chilling “Ahhhhhhhh!”s over Cantrell’s
grindstone riffs. There’s no mistaking the agony in the music. Three
songs directly addressed Staley’s struggles with heroin use: the
aggressive and downright angry “Sickman”; the doom-and-gloom metal
headbanger “Junkhead”; and the power chord chugger “God Smack”: “What in
God’s name have you done? / Stick your arm for some real fun,” Staley
screeches.
Others were less direct, but clear enough. “Down in the Hole,” one of
the band’s signature tracks, opens on a tender note, before diving down
the well with spiraling electric guitar: “Down in a hole / Feeling so
small / Down in a hole / Losing my soul.”
On “Angry Chain,”
Staley sings of solitude and addiction: “So I'm strung out
anyway / Loneliness is not a phase.” His primal snarls
of “Heyyyyyy!!! and “Ohhhhhh!,” right in unison with Cantrell’s
mimicking riff, make it among the album’s most memorable
moments. “Would?” rumbles with bass and showcases one of Staley’s most
explosive vocals: “Into the flood again / Same old trip it was back then
/ So I made a big mistake / Try to see it once my way!!!” “Rooster,”
the LP’s best-performing single, is perhaps the only song not directly
about drug addiction, having been written about Cantrell’s dad’s tours
in the Vietnam War. But in this context, it’s hard not to give its
lyrics double meaning: “Ain't found a way to kill me yet / Eyes burn
with stinging sweat / Seems every path leads me to nowhere,” Staley
pleads.
"I wrote about drugs, and I didn't think I was being
unsafe or careless by writing about them,” Staley told Rolling Stone in
1996. “I didn't want my fans to think that heroin was cool. But then
I've had fans come up to me and give me the thumbs up, telling me
they're high. That's exactly what I didn't want to happen."
Dirt would
be the original lineup’s final release together; Starr left the band in
January of ’93 over what Staley then called differing priorities. But
drugs continued to dominate the band’s story. In ’93, Starr was replaced
by former Ozzy Osbourne bassist Michael Inez and the band went on to
release their self-titled album in ‘95. But the following year, Staley’s
addiction forced the band into an indefinite hiatus. Staley grew
increasingly isolated, spending his final years alone, playing video
games, recording and drawing in his University District condo, estranged
from his bandmates. He’d reportedly lost teeth and was severely
emaciated, due to excessive drug use. He died April 5, 2002 from
a heroin and cocaine “speedball.” His body would be discovered two weeks
later, partially decomposed.
In 2010, Starr, who would go on to have multiple drug-related arrests, would join the cast of the VH1 reality series Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew and
claim that he was the last known person to see Staley alive, visiting
the singer on April 4, Starr’s birthday. The two fought and Starr
stormed out. The bassist was still wracked with guilt for not calling
911 for his sick former bandmate. Starr would die from a prescription
drug overdose in 2011.
Unbelievably, Alice in Chains would rise
from their ashes. Cantrell, now clean and sober, would reform the band
with Kinney and Inez for a 2005 benefit concert featuring guest
vocalists filling in, including Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, Pantera’s
Phil Anselmo and Heart’s Ann Wilson. The following year the band would
hit the road with singer William DuVall and in 2009 release their first
studio album in 14 years, Black Gives Way to Blue. The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here would follow in 2013, along with extensive touring. The band is now working on a sixth album, set to drop early 2018.
Dirt is,
however (and will forever remain), Alice in Chains’ artistic high water
mark. The emotional heft is overwhelming, the music intoxicating, the
aftermath heartbreaking. The Seattle Sound wouldn’t have been possible
without their contribution and sacrifice. And what a sacrifice it was.
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