The dual harmonies of frontman Layne Staley and guitarist, singer and main songwriter Jerry Cantrell were like nothing else in the grunge period and only added to brutish candor of the source material, spilling forth the sorrow, regret and defiance that sometimes churns all at once in the junkie’s brain. “Dirt” remains the most open and unflinching musical depiction of heroin addiction and the loneliness, despair and misery that comes along with it in hard rock. And while outliers like Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, L7 and other grunge noisemakers were getting mainstream recognition, none of them had an explosive impact. Incredibly, those three all came out within a six-week period from late August to early October 1991. The year prior to “Dirt” landing on shelves, Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam released their breakthrough LPs in “Nevermind,” “Badmotorfinger” and “Ten” respectively. It also separated them as hard rockers from the suddenly antiquated metal pack while shining a light on just how bleak the so-called “Seattle scene” really was, festering in a stew of drug addiction and rain-soaked depression. Originally shoehorned in with a then struggling heavy metal genre based on their 1990 debut “Facelift” and hit single “Man in the Box,” it would be the second Alice in Chains effort which proved to be the deepest, darkest and most haunting of the era. Upon closer examination though, a bit of an aberration would be AIC, whose landmark sophomore release “Dirt” turned 30 this week. To debate would be absurd, as those four were the most popular, sold the most music and sprouted out of early ‘90s Seattle, ground zero of the movement. The Mount Rushmore of grunge is universally recognized as being made up of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |