There are few bands through the years that can look back on their days and say that they pioneered a genre, exemplified further by their trademark badass sound that rocked listeners to the bone across the globe. Few bands are as influential and revered as the supermassive behemoths from sonic Seattle, Alice In Chains.
Alice In Chains have the apparent ubiquity of appealing to listeners across the spectrum, transcending genres, cultures, divides and music tastes. The pioneers of the grunge era of the ’90s, Alice In Chains began their meteoric rise to eventual legendary status in the year 1990 with their brutal, power drill to the temple, headbanger of an EP, ‘Facelift‘ which landed on shelves like a speedball dose with its heavy and mean sound which was an all out assault on the ears, a year before Nirvana’s iconic 1991 release ‘Nevermind‘.
It’s now been 30 years since ‘Facelift‘, an EP which introduced the world to grunge and saw Alice In Chains take up the mantle as pioneers of the ’90s sound, the burgeoning sound of the first half of that decade, which cemented their place as one of the most hardass rock bands to have ever been formed.
Against the backdrop of the early ’90s, grunge had come to the forefront of the rock and roll scene and the seemingly innocuous city of Seattle contrived to be the birthplace and origin of the genre with the flag bearers of grunge rock, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam & Alice In Chains springing up in pockets around the city, playing their new brand of heavier rock and roll. The genre, the era and the sound were typified by the mercurial Alice In Chains, who were perhaps its most masterful & powerful proponents.
‘The Seattle sound‘, as it was known at the time, became the defining sound of the ’90s, while the usage of the term ‘the Seattle sound‘ was incorporated as a marketing ploy by major record labels and radio stations in those fledgling years. It was, at the time, a new form of music and a fresh sound in the evolution of rock and roll, which of course had people excited.
When it came to the actual sound, guitar wise at least, ‘grunge‘ had a heavier and sludgy electric guitar sound with a thick middle register and rolled-off treble tone and a high level of distortion and fuzz, which critics described as a “lugubrious sound” and a “buildup of sonic fog“. The lyrics meanwhile, were described as an “ugly” aesthetic, which explored darker lyrical topics and the darker boundaries of existence. Grunge bands aimed at mirroring the “ugliness” they saw around them, with ‘self-degrading‘ and ‘degenerative‘ lyrics that expressed ‘disillusionment‘ and the “depths of depravity“.
Although members of the Seattle bands despised the term ‘grunge‘, at the time at least, including Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, the music was at it’s core, an angry repudiation of rock and roll from the ’70s & ’80s and an explosive outburst and change of style that signalled the shift in sound of mainstream rock and roll, in the rapidly evolving years of the ’90s.
Alice In Chains formed in 1987 after guitarist Jerry Cantrell met vocalist Layne Staley at a party and subsequently moved into Staley’s residence at the time, the Music Bank studio, as his room mate. After recruiting bassist Mike Starr and drummer Sean Kinney, Alice In Chains began performing in Seattle and so the band’s legacy began.
AIC released another EP called ‘Sap‘ and three studio albums ‘Dirt, ‘Jar Of Flies‘ and the self titled ‘Alice In Chains‘ between 1990 and 1996.
Mike Starr was later replaced by Mike Inez who formerly toured with Ozzy Ozbourne, who also famously had “Friends Don’t Let Friends Get Friends Haircuts” scrawled on his guitar during Alice In Chains’ MTV Unplugged concert.
1996’s MTV Unplugged would be one of the last times the band performed with frontman Layne Staley, who would eventually come to pass in 2002 after a speedball(a mix of cocaine and heroin) overdose.
However, despite the severe and scarring loss of their iconic lead singer, Cantrell reformed the band by recruiting guitarist and vocalist William DuVall in 2005 and the band continue to operate to this day with 2018’s ‘Rainier Fog‘ being their most recent release, with ‘Black Gives Way To Blue‘ and ‘The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here‘, being the other two releases with DuVall in the band.
Personally, Alice In Chains are a huge influence in my life and are one of my favourite bands of all time. AIC’s tunes have been playing on my stereo for years and have stuck with me, ever since I was a teenager and I enjoy revisiting their music time and again, my top three songs of theirs being ‘Rooster‘, ‘Nutshell‘ and ‘Rain When I Die‘.
As the dust settles on a long and testing year in 2020, The Musuem Of Pop Culture (MoPOP) decided to honour Alice In Chains by giving them this years MoPOP Founders Award, which would have otherwise seen a slew of current artists pay tribute to the iconic band in a live event.
However, because of the special circumstances of this year entailing that a live gig was impossible, MoPOP decided to record a video of several artists paying homage to Alice In Chains in honour of AIC being given the award, with performances of many of Alice In Chains’ hit songs in an evocative and fitting tribute.
The Museum Of Pop Culture MoPOP is based in Seattle itself and in recognising Alice In Chains, a local band who also have their origins firmly rooted in Seattle, the tribute has an added platonic effect that echoed the local Seattle city spirit, a city which has given so much to the world of music.
The museum itself has a wide range of music artefacts and memorabilia spanning the decades, from the golden years of the ’50s and ’60s which include Seattle’s most renown rock icon Jimi Hendrix and many more. MoPOP also empower young budding musicians and children helping them find their feet in the areas of the arts including music and other creative pursuits.
Artists and celebrities who have paid tribute to Alice In Chains in this video include: Chris Chaney (Jane’s Addiction), Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins), Dallas Green (City and Colour), Fishbone, Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters), KORN, Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, Mad Season), Ann Wilson, Duff McKagan (Guns n’ Roses), Mastodon, Metallica, Dave Navarro, Krist Novoselic (Nirvana, Giants in the Trees), Corey Taylor (Slipknot), Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), Nancy Wilson, and the debut musical performance of Lily Cornell Silver (daughter of Chris Cornell and Susan Silver), among many others. The event also featured appearances from members of Pearl Jam, Sammy Hagar, Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave), Les Claypool, Robert Downey Jr., and many more.
It’s great to see so many musicians and celebrities paying tribute to Alice In Chains, spanning artists from a variety of genres and from different walks of life, which further highlights just how much of an influence AIC have in today’s times, some 30 years on since the release of their first album.
The covers of Alice In Chains’ now infamous songs strike the right chords and appeal to every music fan, especially the rock fans out there and it’s brilliant to hear each of the aforementioned artists’ take on the band’s music with their own unique spin on each of the songs.
I particularly enjoyed KORN’s cover of ‘Would?‘, Metallica’s acoustic cover of ‘Would?‘ as well, Mastodon’s cover of ‘Again‘, Mark Lanegan’s cover of ‘Nutshell‘ and Chris Cornell’s daughter Lily Cornell’s rendition of ‘Black Gives Way To Blue‘, which she surely sang in memory of her late father, while also paying tribute to Alice In Chains.
Alice In Chains’ guitarist Jerry Cantrell was delighted with receiving the award saying, “This band started 33 years ago, three and a half miles down the road in Ballard… it’s a pretty amazing journey that we’re still on. There are so many great artists and friends who have contributed shout-outs and performances — it’s been a really cool experience and William, Sean, Mike, and I would like to thank everybody. And, as we accept these awards, we want to remember our bandmates as well, Layne Staley and Mike Starr. Wow, what a night!”
Alice In Chains’ music and lyrics make for a fitting theme to end the year 2020 and this two-and-a-half-hour tribute video which premiered on 1st December, is by far the coolest thing to be posted online in 2020.
In a year which has been a long, hard and tough one for everyone around the globe during this pandemic, this tribute to Alice In Chains ensures that this otherwise grim year ends on a high note.
In these times of separation and isolation, Alice In Chains’ music and lyrics reiterate the underpinning theme of the irregular, odd, difficult and tumultuous nature of this year and as it comes to an end, this video is by far, the most essential video to watch in 2020.
Along with the candid and humorous sequences, outtakes, fillers, messages from various celebrities congratulating the band, and of course the incredible music, it showcases just how inspirational Alice In Chains are 33 years since their formation in 1987.
Whether you’re a fan of rock or not, it’s hard not to acknowledge how influential Alice In Chains have been in the past, present and future and the band hold their own niche place in the history of rock and roll.
While Alice In Chains’ music and lyrics might not be your regular cup of tea and certainly tread the darker concavities of rock and roll, they will surely go down in history as one of the greatest rock bands of all time.
Here’s the video:
Alice In fu*king Chains \m/
Words For Reveries 