helterskelter.ca

ALICE IN CHAINS
1990 - Facelift.
1992 - Dirt.
more ALICE IN CHAINS.
way more Helter Skelter.

August 24, 1990 - 2025: 35 years of: Facelift.

Hardmusic's facelift.

The year is 1990 and some bands are changing the course of history. Not all from Seattle, yet, but a movement for a different outlook on hardrock and metal. From CIRCUS OF POWER to LIVING COLOUR to SCATTERBRAIN, to the chaos of MINISTRY ...the seeds are planted for the 90s royal-rumble. On the edge of alt-rock ...the Devil put ALICE IN CHAINS here.

"WATCH WHERE YOU SPIT !" Imminent facewash as "We Die Young" rips Marshalls apart. Riffraffin' to perfection, these veins "Bleed The Freak", as the metal-mosh of "It Ain't Like That" slowly tightens the noose, while the leading MTV-single of the piledriving "Man In The Box", cracked Charts and associated skulls.

The hard-blues flair of "Sea Of Sorrow" drowns with tears, as the morbid melancholic Layne Staley serenade of "Confusion" mesmerizes into an hypnotic state. Diametrically, a boogie mood lits the hall with both "Put You Down" and the bass-driven "I Know Somethin' (Bout You)".

NoCal Alt-Metal.

RIAA-certified Triple Platinum, the cards were set, the game was about to change. But before Seattle's commercial take-over, ALICE IN CHAINS would be fully metalized, taking part of Summer 1991's Clash Of The Titans US-tour. A caravan featuring reigning thrashmetal gods: SLAYER, MEGADETH and ANTHRAX.

Dam that river, with the odd men out back in writing-mode and issuing February 1992's acoustic Sap MCD ...ALICE IN CHAINS would soon bodyslam the global-scene with the overdriven dominant Dirt CD.

RIP Mike Starr (1966-2011)

*
We Die Young = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JA25BIxgtk
We Die Young (alt) = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3O1C_s3_-g
Sea Of Sorrow = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbrANo-1QMQ
Man In The Box = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAqZb52sgpU
Facelift = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZelGvfuiGc&list=OLAK5uy_kTm7NGPgKsuOjuE-J8x71JW3ZenSUeGAs
Interview in 1990
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuAV30eMGdE
Live Facelift = full VHS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea0b0-kZblM
Live in Cincinnati in 1991
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5TKGQ89BYA

September 25, 1992 - 2022: 30 years of: Dirt.

Grunge's iron gland.

Since their devastating 1990 metalized debut Facelift CD, the Seattle landscape had morphed into the new West-Hollywood, courtesy of PEARL JAM, NIRVANA and SOUNDGARDEN. The race was on full RPM, yet Layne and the gang would tease the beast and release a selection of acoustics with the Sap MCD in February 1992. Yet by late Summer, the grunge movement would be fully enCHAINed ...courtesy of our dearest ALICE.

I !
I !
I !
I !
Iiiiiiii, beliiiiiiiieve, "Them Boooooooones", are me !

The most powerful metal-track by a non-metal band from this hip non-metal flannel city. Blazing ultra-gain guitars and hard hitting drums, this jungle-mania sent most bands back to the drawing board, from the North to the South of California. The steamroller keeps on crushing with the dropped-D thrashmetal of "Dam That River", the frenetic "Sickman" and the hazy hard drug addiction of "Junkhead".

Dive deep down into the abyss, a view from within the sludgy title-track "Dirt", where inner strugles between life and death are laid out in graphic details. The mood lightens up on the beautiful emotional ballad "Down On A Hole" where guitarist Jerry Cantrell once again, provides strong vocal harmonies. Harmonies that are geared to overdrive, on the band's new signature-cut, the war depicting helter skelter roaller coaster of "Rooster".

Dark and primal, please have a seat on the "Angry Chair" another dry and cut melodramatic metallic powerhouse, while the spine-chilling soundtrack-single for the movie Singles, "Would ?", hammers the scene to it's knees with Mike Starr's hard driving bass-line and Sean Kinney's pulverizing drum-pattern.

Produced by Dave Jerden, this collection of killers features a lot of extra loud mid-crunched bottom-end guitars, courtesy of a special gift from a very very very very very very very special friend: Eddie Van Halen's personal Peavey 5150 amplifier.

The Seattle Big Four was now commercially complete, ruling the Charts and arenas and taking names. 1991-92's tide-changing events would not only interest the mainstream to a heavier rocknroll, but forever alter the modus-operandi of the music-business. RIAA-certified 5x Platinum, Dirt widen the optics of metalized-grunge, but also received interest in traditional headbanger's markets since their Clash Of The Titans appearance.

Repeating the experience with the acoustic 1994 Jar Of Flies MCD, the heaviest of the alternative would crush, one last time, with 1995's self-titled Alice In Chains CD ...to a very different Seattle and to a very different scene, now ruled by GREEN DAY, BEASTIE BOYS and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE.

WHAT THE HELL HAVE I ?

RIP Layne Staley (1967-2002)

*
Them Bones = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTuD8k3JvxQ
Rooster = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAE6Il6OTcs
Angry Chair = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpEXM1Yziws
Would ? = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nco_kh8xJDs
Dirt = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNMqyrhPrXY&list=OLAK5uy_lJLgS_rNiB-OeoZDfdvfjW5AO5aoauBqE
Interview in L.A. in 1992
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nhfjFqjoNY
Live in Oregon in 1992
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wFBOW996Z8
some band
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-9hNnhE5GA

more ALICE IN CHAINS:

#Grunge