ALICE IN CHAINS — Facelift (review)

ALICE IN CHAINS — Facelift album cover Album · 1990 · Alternative Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Pekka
A big bunch of new bands emerged from Seattle underground around the end of the 80s and perhaps the heaviest of them all was Alice in Chains. They debuted in 1990 with Facelift and it didn't take long until they were opening shows for the likes of Slayer and Megadeth, even though their style was very different.

Many of these songs were recorded for demos in the previous years, and judging by the demo tracks featured in the Music Bank box set and the Nothing Safe compilation, they slowed down their tempos considerably for this album. The demo of the opener We Die Young might be my favourite AIC track ever and luckily this slower version works like a charm as well, despite the slightly less passionate vocal performance by Layne Staley. Classic heavy metal, as is the next number Man in the Box with its crunching one chord riff. This song and my third favourite from the album, Bleed the Freak, somewhat suffer from a similar problem of being overshadowed by other recorded renditions by the band. The versions released on the Live album put these originals to shame with their burning drive, especially Man in the Box. Comparisons aside they're both brilliant tracks in their original form as well and definitely highlights of this album.

The rest of the material can't quite live up to the promise made by the starting tracks, but most of the album is very solid stuff especially coming from such a young band. They were still somewhat finding their feet which explains for example the funk riffing of I Know Something ('Bout You), a style they wouldn't try again on their later works, but most of what made the unique Alice In Chains sound with the hard riffing and haunting vocal harmonies was already intact.

A solid debut with a couple of classic killer tracks. Worth every penny you put into it but not really essential.
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