RustyNails Rock/Metal Album Reviews #3- Band/Artists: Alice In Chains, Album: Dirt

RustyNail Sorry about the long wait on this episode, I've been busy.

Band/ Artists - Alice In Chains
Album - Dirt
Genres - Grunge / Heavy metal / Alt metal/ Sludge Metal
Members -
Layne Staley - Lead Vocals / Guitar on "Hate To Feel" and "Angry Chair"
Jerry Cantrell - Lead Guitar / Vocals
Michael Starr- Bass Guitar
Sean Kinney- Drums

Track Listing
1. Them Bones
2. Dam That River
3. Rain When I Die
4. Down In A Hole
5. SickMan
6. Rooster
7. JunkHead
8. Dirt
9. GodSmack
10. Iron Glad
11. Hate To Feel
12. Angry Chair
13. Would?

This is "Dirt", the second album by Alice In Chains released in 1992. It was one of the major albums in the grunge scene. The album has gone 5 platinum ("5 million). This was the final album before Michael Starr was fired. There were 5 singles released:" Them Bones", " Rooster", " Would?", "Down In A Hole", and" Angry Chair".

Lyrical themes -
The themes for" Junkhead", "Godsmack", " Sickman", " Dirt" about Heroin and their effects. Drugs are a big part of the lyrics in this album.

" Them Bones" is about mortality , about one day we are all going to die. For me its actually pretty uplifting. were all going to die , so don't waste your life .

" Dam that River" Is about a fight between Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney, which ended up with a Coffee table getting broken over Jerrys Head.

" Down In a Hole", according to Jerry was about a Long time love he had.

" Rooster" Is about War, the Vietnam war to be correct. Jerrys father was a part of the Vietnam war. And his nickname was Rooster.

" Would?" Is about The late Andrew Wood, who was the lead singer of Mother Love Bone.

Track Dissection

1. Them Bones- genres: Grunge/ Sludge metal / alt metal
The intro starts with Layne's grizzly yelping yells, along with Jerrys Sludge type sounding guitar. The song is sort of a combination of Layne and Jerrys vocals. Kick ass bass, pretty rhythmic drumming. Pretty complex guitar solo. A staple at a AIC concert. Amazing song.

2. Dam That River - Genres- Grunge / Sludge metal / alt metal.
Aggressive heavy intro. Quality rhythm section throughout the song. Heavy bass. Layne Staley has a. Vocal style like no other. Nice solo.

3. Rain When I Die- genres - grunge / metal
The first 60 seconds are very creepy sounding, hard bass, metallic guitar. Amazing Chorus, very harmonic. Amazing vocals by Layne in the chorus. Jerrys guitar works in the song are crazy, in a good way. The ending ends the music then comes back again before ending.

4. Down In A Hole- genres- Grunge / alt metal
Softest song in the record. Layne was actually high during the recording of this. Yet he sounds amazing. Almost acoustic sounding guitar. Kick ass guitar work. A chorus that has great backing vocals. Recommend this one for sure. The bridge is vocals between Layne and Jerry.

Sickman- genres- grunge/ sludge / alt metal
Seans Drumming are top notch in this song. Clear but hard bass. Metallic guitar. Erie chorus. The bridge is sad sounding, creepy vocals by both Layne and Jerry.

Rooster - genres- Grunge/ alt metal
Pure awesomeness. Favorite song on this album. Very grunge type feel. Laynes Rooster sounds are well done. Great guitar and bass in the verses. Incredible vocals by Layne. The chorus is aggressive and metallic. Jerrys guitar riffs after the chorus are simple, yet crazy good. Nice backing vocals. The lyrics are so sad, the topic of war, man.

Junkhead- genres- grunge / sludge metal
Heavy intro. Peaceful and creepy verses. The song is so honest about drugs. Repetitive guitar solo. Nice bass, rhythmic drums.

Dirt- genres- grunge/ metal/ sludge
Creepy metallic guitar intro. " Dirt" aka heroin is the lyrical theme. Kick ass drums and amazing harmonic chorus. My personal favorite guitar solo on this album. Great bass.

Godsmack- genres- grunge/ sludge / alt metal
Bass Driven intro. Creepy vocals. Angus vocals by Layne, especially in the chorus. Riff type guitar solo. Drugs are again the topic.

Iron Gland- Genres- metal
Its a 43 track done with a guitar riff thing Jerry would play to anoy his band mates. Layne is joined by a very special vocalist, one of the big 4 of thrash. He does bass in the band. Who is it, as if I didn't know.

Hate To Feel - genres- grunge/ metal
Probably the creepy guitar and chorus is what it does for me. Amazing backing vocals. Very underrated song by AIC. Hard bass. Percussion type drumming. Heavy distortion . Short guitar solo.

Angry Chair- genres- grunge/Alt metal
Drum and eerie guitar into. Layne was again high on this one. In the second and third chorus, there is an almost happy harmonic part, its amazing. You'll know it when it happens. Complex guitar solo. Rhythmic bass. Recommend song.

Would?- genres- grunge / alt metal
bass intro, and great guitars in the verses. Jerry sings along with Layne in the vereses. Harmonic Chorus. Kick ass solo. This is often a fan favorite.

go to RustyNails rock and metal album reviews pre post information for full score guide

Track Scoring
out of 1-5
1- sucks/ ok song
2. Good/ could be better
3- Cool Song / one I don't mind hearing
4- Damn great song
5- Favorite / Pure awesomeness / turn it up and rock

1- Them Bones- score- 5
2- Dam that River- score - 3
3- Rain When I Die- score - 4
4- Down In A Hole - score- 5
5- Sickman-score - 3
6- Rooster -score -5
7- Junkhead- score- 4
8- Dirt- score -5
9- Godsmack- score - 3
10- Iron Gland- score-2
11- Hate To Feel- score-4
12- Angry Chair- score-5
13- Would?- score -3

Album score , out of 5

4.8 is my score ( 96%(

This is one of my favorite albums I've heard. The shame is the drug theme backfired, Layne wrote about drugs to get people to understand how bad they are. Layne had said in an interview that people would come to him and say they were high. Layne had a severe drug abuse problem his whole life. Which caused his demise on April 5 ,2002. Alice in chains were one of the only bands that fused Grunge and metal so amazingly. AIC are part of big 4 grunge bands( along side Nirvana, Soundgarden and pearl jam) this is an album I recommend for rockers and metalheads, you won't be disappointed

RUSTYNAIL OUT!!!!!

Comments

Sickman and Junkhead are some of the deepest tracks on this album. And two of my favorites from Alice in Chains in general. Great review. - LizardKing99

Do the self-titled album next. - NuMetalManiak

Nice review of one of my all time favourite albums. - IronSabbathPriest

Angry Chair Definitely Deserved That Five - FettiMC

Godsmack and hate to heel are pretty underrated here - visitor