Author: Urban Bolta
Artist: Alice In Chains
Label: Columbia Records
Released: 1990
Runtime: 54:15
Rating: 4/5
In the late eighties, something new started brewing in America’s music scene. The market had had more than enough of glam rock costume parties and songs about the easy life and sex, and the golden years of the eighties were running out for heavy metal too. Out of the alternative rock of the second half of the eighties, and under the influence of acts like Sonic Youth, Pixies and Neil Young, a huge boom called grunge started taking shape in Seattle. It peaked in the early nineties with million-selling albums from the likes of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots.
Alice in Chains started down their thorny path in the spirit and circumstances of that time. Guitarist Jerry Cantrell invited vocalist Layne Staley into his band, kicking off a successful musical journey that lasted a decade and a half, though sadly it was paved with, and all too tied up in, drug addiction. Neither Cantrell nor Staley was a complete newcomer to the music world, new songs came together fast, and promising demos led them all the way to the giant label Columbia Records, where they put out their debut “Facelift” in 1990.
“Facelift” thus happened before the big grunge boom, and maybe that’s exactly why it’s their most special album. AiC stand firmly on metal ground. The band members had played in various metal bands in the past, which shows in the heavy riffing and other traits that really do put them in the metal camp. “Facelift” is a record with a transitional sound, their heaviest, fusing the heavy metal eighties with a new style of alternative rock, while the later development of the Seattle scene steered them toward slightly softer waters, closer to typical grunge characteristics. But they never forgot their roots.
The album is kicked off by “We Die Young”, with a central riff heavy as lead and an aggressive Staley vocal, followed right away by “Man In The Box”, which became the album’s biggest hit. Vocally, Staley ventures into experimental territory, and his vocal outbursts and search for himself are among the dominant traits of the Alice in Chains debut. He’s backed throughout by Jerry Cantrell’s backing vocals, though not necessarily in harmony. Often it’s two-part singing with a slight offset that works like an echo and creates a very special, dreamy, melancholic mood. It’s an element AiC carefully nurtured throughout their career, and it still follows them today. The morbid, spine-chilling feel of “I Can’t Remember” comes from the extremely slow tempo, Staley’s already mentioned vocal performance, where he soars on the wings of addiction right up to the edge of the pathetic, and the brilliantly considered guitar work in low-tuned tones. In “Love, Hate, Love” all the typical elements of the AiC debut really stand out, creating one of the mightiest and most mystical AiC songs. It’s direct proof of grunge arriving in their soul and could easily have been one of the flagship tracks of grunge, but it got overlooked. “It Ain’t Like That”, with its harmonized singing, brings in at least a bit of melody, a quality not typical of AiC. The second half of the album lags behind a little and doesn’t push forward a single hit. Truth be told, the funk-leaning “I Know Somethin (‘Bout You)”, for one, doesn’t deserve a place next to the greatness of the first half.
Most of the songs were written by Jerry Cantrell, the band’s mastermind and one of the greatest guitarists of the nineties. His philosophy rests on building a central riff and weaving the song around it. Despite his enviable technical skill, his guitar solos are more the exception than the rule, and their polish fades in an instant, since the point of AiC’s music is building a (depressive) mood, so individual technical chops aren’t of central importance. The rhythm section, with drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Starr, is strongly present, but it’s Cantrell’s guitar playing that breathes the album’s signature, eerie atmosphere, inspired by Ozzy’s Black Sabbath era and the reason Alice in Chains often end up on the favorites lists of metal anthem devotees. The metal orientation of the AiC sound doesn’t suffer from the punk sound typical of early grunge (as with bands like Green River or Mudhoney). The exception is “Real Thing”, where the faster tempo, more dynamic drumming and Staley’s screaming vocal smell of it. Across the twelve songs there are ups and downs. Besides the peaks, the album also has a few cuts where the band was still searching for itself, the typical syndrome at the start of almost any musical journey.
“Facelift” is the start of the successful Alice in Chains story, an album that neatly captures the spirit of an era, when a heavy metal-leaning band got swallowed up by the grunge scene. It pulled a charismatic duo out of anonymity, the pair who shaped the musical direction of the first half of the nineties: guitar master Jerry Cantrell and vocal oddball Layne Staley. With their debut, the Seattleites let hard rock and heavy metal crowds know that grunge was happening, and by going platinum they became the first grunge act to break out of the underground. The TV channel MTV deserves credit for this success too, since by putting the “Man in the Box” video on heavy rotation it decisively drove demand for the album. With the release of “Facelift”, the triumphs of grunge music had barely begun…
Lineup
Layne Staley – vocals
Jerry Cantrell – guitar, backing vocals
Mike Starr – bass guitar
Sean Kinney – drums
Production
Peter Fletcher
Track list
1. We Die Young
2. Man In The Box
3. Sea Of Sorrow
4. Bleed The Freek
5. I Can’t Remember
6. Love, Hate, Love
7. It Ain’t Like That
8. Sunshine
9. Put You Down
10. Confusion
11. I Know Somethin (‘Bout You)
12. Real Thing
