ARTIST: Alice In Chains
TITLE: The Essential
LABEL: Columbia/Legacy
GENRE: Grunge
BITRATE: 221 kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 2h 09min total
RELEASE DATE: 2006-09-05
RIP DATE: 2006-08-25
Track List: CD #1/2
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01. We Die Young 2:32
02. Man In The Box 4:46
03. Sea Of Sorrow 5:50
04. Love, Hate, Love 6:28
05. Am I Inside 5:09
06. Brother 4:28
07. Got Me Wrong 4:11
08. Right Turn 3:14
09. Rain When I Die 6:03
10. Them Bones 2:30
11. Angry Chair 4:49
12. Dam That River 3:10
13. Dirt 5:16
14. God Smack 3:50
15. Hate To Feel 5:16
16. Rooster 6:16
Track List: CD #2/2
----------------------------
01. No Excuses 4:16
02. I Stay Away 4:14
03. What The Hell Have I (Remix) 3:54
04. A Little Bitter (Remix) 3:48
05. Grind 4:46
06. Heaven Beside You 5:29
07. Again 4:05
08. Over Now (Unplugged Version) 5:57
09. Nutshell (Unplugged Version) 4:32
10. Get Born Again 5:24
11. Died 5:57
12. Would? 3:28
Release Notes:
The Essential Alice in Chains is the 2 disc compilation album by
Alice in Chains. It was originally to be released on March 30, 2004
but was delayed. It will now be released on September 5, 2006.
In many ways, Alice in Chains was the definitive heavy metal band
of the early '90s. Drawing equally from the heavy riffing of
post-Van Halen metal and the gloomy strains of post-punk, the band
developed a bleak, nihilistic sound that balanced grinding hard
rock with subtly textured acoustic numbers. They were hard enough
for metal fans, yet their dark subject matter and punky attack
placed them among the front ranks of the Seattle-based grunge
bands. While this dichotomy helped the group soar to multi-platinum
status with their second album, 1992's Dirt, it also divided them.
Guitarist Jerry Cantrell always leaned toward the mainstream, while
vocalist Layne Staley was fascinated with the seamy underground.
Such tension drove the band toward stardom in their early years,
but following Dirt, Alice in Chains suffered from near-crippling
internal tensions that kept the band off the road for the remainder
of the '90s and, consequently, the group never quite fulfilled
their potential.
Staley formed the initial incarnation of the band while in high
school in the mid-'80s, naming the group Alice N Chains. Staley met
Cantrell in 1987 at the Seattle rehearsal warehouse the Music Bank
and the two began working together, changing the group's name to
Alice in Chains. Cantrell's friends Mike Starr (bass) and Sean
Kinney (drums) rounded out the lineup,and the band began playing
local Seattle clubs. Columbia Records signed the group in 1989 and
the label quickly made the band a priority, targeting heavy metal
audiences. Early in 1990, the label released the We Die Young EP as
a promotional device and the song became a hit on metal radio,
setting the stage for the summer release of the group's debut,
Facelift. Alice in Chains supported the album by opening for Van
Halen, Poison, and Iggy Pop, and it became a hit, going gold by the
end of the year. As the band prepared their second album, they
released the largely acoustic EP Sap in 1991 to strong reviews.
Prior to the release of Alice in Chains' second album, Seattle
became a media sensation thanks to the surprise success of Nirvana.
As a result, Alice was now marketed as an alternative band, not as
a metal outfit, and the group landed a song, the menacing "Would?,"
on the Singles soundtrack during the summer of 1992. "Would?"
helped build anticipation for Dirt, the group's relentlessly bleak
second album that was released in the fall of 1992 to very good
reviews. Following its release, Starr left and was replaced by Mike
Inez. Dirt went platinum by the end of 1992, but its gloomy lyrics
launched many rumors that Staley was addicted to heroin. Alice in
Chains soldiered on in the face of such criticism, performing
successfully on the third Lollapalooza tour in 1993, which helped
Dirt reach sales of three million.
The band released the low-key EP Jar of Flies in early 1994. It
debuted at number one upon its release, becoming the first EP to
top the album charts. Despite the band's continued success, they
stayed off the road, which fueled speculation that Staley was mired
in heroin addiction. Later that year, Staley did give a few
concerts as part of the Gacy Bunch, a Seattle supergroup also
featuring Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, the Screaming Trees' Barrett
Martin, and John Saunders. The group subsequently renamed itself
Mad Season and released Above in early 1995. Later that year, Alice
in Chains re-emerged with an eponymous third album, which debuted
at number one on the American charts. Again, the band chose not to
tour, which launched yet another round of speculation that band was
suffering from various addictions and were on the verge of
disbanding. The group did give one concert -- their first in three
years -- in 1996, performing for an episode of MTV Unplugged, which
was released as an album that summer. Despite its success, the
album did nothing to dispel doubts about the group's future and
neither did Cantrell's solo album, Boggy Depot, in 1998.
Cantrell basically released Boggy Depot because he couldn't get
Staley to work, but its very existence -- and the presence of Inez
and Kinney on the record, not to mention Alice producer Toby Wright
-- seemed to confirm that the group was on moratorium at best,
defunct at worst. Staley, for his part, stayed quiet, conceding his
spot on Mad Season's second album to Screaming Trees singer Mark
Lanegan. In 1999, Sony put together a three-disc Alice in Chains
box set, Music Bank, divided between the group's best work and
assorted rarities. At the turn of the new millennium, Columbia
Records issued Live, which plucked material from bootlegs, demos,
and festival shows covering the years 1990, 1993, and 1996.
As if the group hadn't been repackaged as many times as possible
with its limited repertoire, a ten-track best-of set, Greatest
Hits, appeared in July 2001. With no sign of the group reclaiming
their spot atop the alt-metal heap (and such copycat acts as
Godsmack, Days of the New, Puddle of Mudd, and Creed taking the
Alice in Chains formula to the top of the charts), Cantrell
completed his sophomore solo effort, Degradation Trip, in 2002.
But just two months before the album's release, in April 2002, the
news that every Alice in Chains fan had been fearing for years had
finally come to pass: Layne Staley was found dead due to a lethal
overdose of cocaine and heroin. Although understandably
grief-stricken, Cantrell launched his solo album's supporting tour
according to schedule, opting to open shows in the summer for
another Alice in Chains-influenced band, Nickelback.
All tracks remastered. R.I.P. Layne Staley