ALICE IN CHAINS — Jar Of Flies (review)

ALICE IN CHAINS — Jar Of Flies album cover EP · 1994 · Non-Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Stooge
Alice In Chains continues what has been a rather successful pattern of releases: heavy studio album (Facelift), unplugged and mellow EP (Sap), back to a heavy full-length (Dirt), and once again a more laid-back EP with Jar Of Flies.

As a bass player myself, I am impressed by Mike Inez on his first album with the band. His playing in particular on “Nutshell” and “No Excuses” is very tasteful and compliments the songs to great effect. Opener “Rotten Apple” sounds like it was written around Inez’s repeating riff. Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell share lead vocal duties as they often do, with their voices meshing the greatest on “I Stay Away” and “No Excuses”. “No Excuses”, which also features rather inventive drum patterns by Sean Kinney, and “Nutshell” are my personal favorites on this EP.

I like the Cantrell-lead tune “Don’t Follow”, which has a slight western vibe with Layne’s somewhat twangy backing vocals and nice use of harmonica courtesy of guest David Atkinson. It sounds like a more appropriate closing track than “Swing On This”. Much like the fifth track on Sap, “Swing On This” comes across as more of a novelty song (though much less extreme than the so-called "Love Song"). At least it sounds like they had a blast playing it, and at least they didn’t hide the track this time ‘round :).

A great release by Alice In Chains, though I’d give Sap a slight edge as the superior EP.
Share this review

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!

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

Deviance Deathcore
ASHES INTO BLOOD
Buy this album from MMA partners
Equilibrium Atmospheric Sludge Metal
BESRA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tension Between Rot And Genesis Sludge Metal
ANTHESIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Recycle Brain Crust Punk
C.P.G
Buy this album from MMA partners
Cartography Of The Mind Deathcore
TETHERED
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

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