ALICE IN CHAINS — Facelift (review)

ALICE IN CHAINS — Facelift album cover Album · 1990 · Alternative Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Silver Shade of Lead
This is AIC's first LP and for better or worse, it shows. Altough the production values hadn't yet reached the same level of its follow-ups, the band makes up for it with some of their hardest songs. In fact, the album kicks off with We Die Young, and follows through on a mind-crushing first half with Man In The Box, Sea of Sorrow and Bleed The Freak. Crunching guitar chords, powerful vocal deliverances and an electrifying hint of fretboard pyromania are telling us we're in for a tour de force metal album.

After this they seem to lose some focus and the stoner side of AIC (if there's any other) kicks in and are more than worthy of reference: Love, Hate, Love, a dark and disturbing epic piece of sorts, whose bone-chilling ambience is driven through Cantrell's moody, layered guitars and Layne's madness piercing through the mic; It Aint't Like That, another potential hit in the dawning grunge scene; Sunshine and Real Thing bringing us to the much overlooked funny bone in AIC, where the band's depicted mental illness takes a turn to the hilarious.

To sum it up, if you ask anyone about metal in the 90's you'll more than probably come across Facelift. For some, it is a sort of forgotten counterpart to Dirt, however, after a couple of spins it's more than capable of holding its own. 4 well deserved stars.
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

I, the Destroyer Black Metal
SVARTFJELL
Buy this album from MMA partners
A Sonication Technical Death Metal
OBSCURA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Hin helga kvöl Atmospheric Sludge Metal
SÓLSTAFIR
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Cycles of Suffering Black Metal
BURIAL OATH
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Suns of Perdition - Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion Black Metal
PANZERFAUST
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

DAWN OF REVENGE - Sanctuary [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 8 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Farewell [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 8 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Curtain of Death - [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 8 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Vengeance [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 8 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - I Need You [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 8 days 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