ALICE IN CHAINS — Facelift (review)

ALICE IN CHAINS — Facelift album cover Album · 1990 · Alternative Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2/5 ·
Phonebook Eater
Not bad for a debut album! A nice collection of songs, some will eventually become classic Alice In Chains songs. I have to admit though that this album never really convinced me, until now. I found it boring and I thought the songs, with some exceptions, were annoying and repetitive. Now I really like most of them.

The style is more heavy metal/ alt metal than grunge, so the band is still far from reaching maturity. With their following album, "Dirt", their absolute masterpiece, they will definitely reach a more mature sound, so anyway they weren't that far to maturity when this album was released.

Within these songs you can already hear singer Layne Stanley's pain and love for drugs, like in songs such as "I Can't Remember" and "Put You Down", even though they're some love songs, or some that concern animal abuse, young gangsters, and fear of death. So overall it is very dark, except for the love songs.

Some of the best AIC songs are here: "We Die Young", a short but strong song, very aggressive, it's one of my favorites. "Man In The Box", a true AIC classic, with a catchy melody and again a very aggressive riff. "Sea Of Sorrow" is another excellent song, very underrated even though it was released as a single. "Bleed The Freak" is another classic, I love the more calm part, very effective. "I Can't Remember" is another great song, with a catchy riff and lyrics concerning drugs. "Love, Hate, Love" is the longest song off the album, 6 minutes. A great song, even though the lyrics aren't so powerful. "It Ain't Like That" is pretty good, I just went to an AIC concert and they played it, with my big surprise. the rest of the songs go from OK to quite irritating, and very disappointing. I really don't like it when a band on an album concentrates all the good songs/ singles at the beginning, leaving all the crappy songs at the end.

To sum up, a really good album, even though it has it's defects. I recommend it to any AIC fan and to whoever likes the very first grunge albums.
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