Alice in Chains

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Retrology
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Alice in Chains

Postby Retrology » September 6th, 2016, 3:28 am

Autumn is here (if it's September, it's automatically Fall), so it's the perfect time to listen to Alice in Chains.

I've been listening to AIC a lot recently. Their brand of music is terrific, and I'm a long time fan. Layne Staley's lyrics and voice had a layer of vulnerability most singers can't compare to, and the vocal harmonies and rhythm are excellent.

Jar of Flies is my favorite AIC record, but I love pretty much all of their stuff from 1990-1996. Never heard the stuff with the new vocalist.

Thoughts? Any other Alice in Chains fans?

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LoganRuckman
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Re: Alice in Chains

Postby LoganRuckman » September 7th, 2016, 3:19 pm

Yeah, Dirt is one of my favorite albums of all time. So bleak and depressing, but also very personal. It's as if a severely depressed, suicidal junkie decided to release a metal album based on their diary and their thoughts, and came out with a masterpiece.

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BlasteroidAli
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Re: Alice in Chains

Postby BlasteroidAli » September 7th, 2016, 6:11 pm

They are a band to be listened to at the end of the year in the dark months. I quite like them.

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velcrozombie
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Re: Alice in Chains

Postby velcrozombie » September 8th, 2016, 10:53 am

Retrology wrote:Jar of Flies is my favorite AIC record, but I love pretty much all of their stuff from 1990-1996. Never heard the stuff with the new vocalist.


It's a toss-up between Dirt and Jar of Flies for my favorite, but I think I agree with you - Dirt is amazing but it's also quite unrelenting, while there are moments of beauty and hope in Jar of Flies. The self-titled album has some good stuff (I casually play music with a few friends and we did a rough version of "Heaven Beside You" the other night) but it's also meandering and unfocused compared to the earlier material. Both of the albums with singer William DuVall are solid and definitely worth a few listens, although that weird emotional resonance that Staley brought to the table is sorely missed.

Robotrek
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Re: Alice in Chains

Postby Robotrek » September 8th, 2016, 4:52 pm

They're one of the few alternative bands that DON'T put me to sleep.

snakeboy
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Re: Alice in Chains

Postby snakeboy » September 8th, 2016, 10:38 pm

Jar of Flies is my favorite too. It's pretty short, but everything on it is great. Sap is another really good one that has an acoustic vibe similar to Jar of Flies.

velcrozombie wrote:It's a toss-up between Dirt and Jar of Flies for my favorite, but I think I agree with you - Dirt is amazing but it's also quite unrelenting, while there are moments of beauty and hope in Jar of Flies. The self-titled album has some good stuff (I casually play music with a few friends and we did a rough version of "Heaven Beside You" the other night) but it's also meandering and unfocused compared to the earlier material. Both of the albums with singer William DuVall are solid and definitely worth a few listens, although that weird emotional resonance that Staley brought to the table is sorely missed.


That's a pretty good summation of those albums. The best songs on the self-titled album are some of the best stuff they ever created, but it's just too long and about 3/4 of the way through begins to drag. Just looking at the track listing, it has a ridiculous three songs that run for over 7 minutes.

I don't think I've heard any of their post-Layne Staley music. I've just never had any desire to listen to it for some reason.

Tron
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Re: Alice in Chains

Postby Tron » September 11th, 2016, 2:02 am

I never bought many CDs, but I bought jar of flies 3x. I need to buy it agian. My fave AIC albulm, but it's too short.

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velcrozombie
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Re: Alice in Chains

Postby velcrozombie » September 23rd, 2016, 11:48 am

Robotrek wrote:They're one of the few alternative bands that DON'T put me to sleep.


Are they really an alternative band? I think you could call them a hard rock band and I don't think anyone would have too much of a problem with it today.

I like a lot of music that's considered alternative, but after a while it became this all-encompassing phrase for any type of rock or pop music that didn't fit into some restrictive, ill-defined parameters - basically anything that didn't fit into either classic-rock radio or top-40 pop radio was called alternative for a long time. If I had to point to some bands that, in my opinion, fit the classification "alternative", it would be stuff like Beck, Ween, or Talking Heads - bands that you can't really assign a genre to or who created their own genre. Stuff like Matchbox 20, Creed and even Nickleback used to be played on Pittsburgh's alternative radio station and it really used to bug me.

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Stalvern
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Re: Alice in Chains

Postby Stalvern » October 8th, 2016, 2:49 am

The "tripod" album is my favorite. Dirt and Jar of Flies are good, but for reasons that keep them from reaching the same level - they're way too lucid and alive. Afterward is when things get awful in a way that's genuinely frightening to hear.

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Rookie1
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Re: Alice in Chains

Postby Rookie1 » October 8th, 2016, 8:40 am

AiC is my in my top 5 favorite bands. They are my go to music, I really love them. I got the opportunity to see them a few years back with the new singer, and man that guy is spot on. Noone can fully replace the vocals of Layne Staley, but that guy does about as close as it could get.

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