Album Review: Alice In Chains

In 1995, Alice In Chains had replaced Mike Starr with Mike Inez on bass.  Their music, never the sunniest to begin with, had taken on a darker hue as signposted by the artwork.  Grind opens the album with Jerry Cantrell's 'grinding' guitar riff as Layne Staley sings "in the darkest hole you'd be well-advised not to plan my funeral before the body dies".  These guys make an ugly, ugly sound, and the grimness doesn't let up much across 12 songs.

Foreboding songs like Brush Away and Sludge Factory do little to dispel the gloom, while even the pretty guitar strum of Heaven Beside You sees Cantrell and Staley's decaying harmonies tell of "heaven beside you and hell within".  Shame In You sees a tiny speck of brightness creep into proceedings, though Staley is "concentrating on dying", over soaring guitars.

We finish with Over Now, a song not unlike Nirvana's quieter moments, with a pretty melody and Cantrell's fancy guitar work.  But it was to prove to be Staley's final album with the band.