The lyrics are firmly tongue-in-cheek, while the tempo is above average for the band. Opening track ‘Them Bones’ was the first Alice In Chains song I have ever heard and excellent proof of how the band keeps their music listenable. Alice In Chains are masters of this balance. What remains is certainly dark and depressive, but with enough memorable melodies and excellent songwriting to not become totally unlistenable. The debut occasionally touched upon that, but there were also distinct traces of the band’s glam metal past. In a sense, ‘Dirt’ is the album where Alice In Chains found its signature sound: generally slow, creepy riffs that combine a seventies hard rock swagger with a doom metal feel and of course the trademark dual vocal harmonies by Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell. While Alice In Chains has yet to release an album not worth hearing, there is a sense of urgency and a dark, twisted atmosphere to ‘Dirt’ that none of their other albums consistently feature, making it one of my favorite albums of all time. It will be an impossible task to find the words for how much I love this album, but if one album deserves the effort, it would be Alice In Chains’ sophomore album. And yet, that is what I will be doing in the next five hundred words or so. Willian DuVall replaced Staley on vocals when the the remainder of the band reunited in 2009.You probably don’t need me to tell you that ‘Dirt’ is a masterpiece. Vocalist Layne Staley was found dead in his apartment on April 19th, 2002. Guitarist Jerry Cantrell embarked on a successful solo career. A well-publicized drug problems (mostly centering around Layne Staley) surfaced as early as the "Dirt" era, making it rather obvious that the band was probably not going to survive in the long term. Their crooning harmonic vocal style has been imitated by many bands over the last following decades, certainly enough to qualify them as an influential band. The Seattle grunge movement of the late eighties spawned many a band, and Alice In Chains were one of the most well-known, as well as one of the more traditionally metal (more so than they are given credit for). Alternative Rock (Modern Rock) band formed in Seattle, Washington (USA).
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