ALICE IN CHAINS — Dirt (review)

ALICE IN CHAINS — Dirt album cover Album · 1992 · Alternative Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Primeval Scum
The crown jewel of the grunge movement

Facelift and Alice in Chains were pretty good and Black Gives Way to Blue and The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here managed to be somewhat competent, but Dirt is in a league of its own. With this album, Alice In Chains achieved near-perfection of their sound. The album is stuffed to the brim with thick and gloomy, yet morbidly catchy rock songs. Make no mistake, this is no vanilla grunge a la Nirvana. Alice In Chains mix in lots of heavy metal and even doom metal influence to give their music a darker edge than most of their grunge contemporaries. The feelings of hopelessness and loneliness that these songs emit will grab you by the throat.

Of course, the songwriting of Jerry Cantrell and the vocals of Layne Staley are what make this album work so well. Cantrell and Staley's crooning vocal harmonies have made their permanent mark on rock history. Staley's wails on "Would" and "Down in a Hole" truly are the cries of a man who has lost hope and feels isolated from the world. Though it was a huge mainstream success, this album has something real and emotionally intense about it that few others do. Almost every song is a classic. A "Best Of" album for Alice In Chains should be about two-thirds of Dirt and a couple songs from their other two 90s albums. That's how great this thing is.

If you call yourself a fan of good rock music and you haven't given this thing a chance, you're doing yourself a real disservice.

Best songs: Sickman, Rooster, Junkhead, Dirt, God Smack, Hate to Feel, Angry Chair, Would?, Down in a Hole
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Suffocated By Fungal Odors Deathcore
VISCERAL EXECRATION
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lethargy Metalcore
HEARTLAPSE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Vitriol Deathcore
BEHEADING THE ICON
Buy this album from MMA partners
Cecità Atmospheric Sludge Metal
NITRITONO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Resiliencia Metalcore
SOURCE OF MYSTERIES
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Suicidal Tendencies - Send Me Your Money
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES
UMUR· 5 hours ago
Suicidal Tendencies - Trip at the Brain
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES
UMUR· 5 hours ago
Suicidal Tendencies - Nobody Hears
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES
UMUR· 5 hours ago
Suicidal Tendencies - You Can't Bring Me Down
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES
UMUR· 5 hours ago
Thanatos - Source Of Mysteries (Video Oficial)
SOURCE OF MYSTERIES
Bosh66· 1 day ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed