10 Rock Albums That Were A Nightmare To Make

10. Alice In Chains- Alice In Chains

It's practically a miracle that Alice in Chains even survived long enough to make album number three. In between cleansing their souls of their demons on Dirt, it was becoming more clear that Layne Staley was losing his battle with heroin, and the acoustic EP Jar of Flies was only further proof of how much he lost his way. So what we get on the self titled Alice in Chains project is more along the lines of the band being held together with string and duct tape.

While the songwriting is still on par with Facelift on tracks like Grind and Heaven Beside You, there's a much more melancholy feel coated through the rest of this record, with Layne's voice practically looming like a ghost over most of the songs. Even though you can hear his classic growl on songs like Again and Head Creeps, he's done too much damage to his body to reach those screams that he got to on Rain When I Die, being replaced with more Sabbath sounding songs like Sludge Factory and Nothin Song, with Jerry Cantrell doing most of the heavy lifting.

There's definitely the seeds of a great Alice project hidden in here somewhere, but it's hard to listen back to them when you realize how much the band had lost their way. Considering how much Layne was absent during most of these sessions, this might as well be a Jerry Cantrell solo record featuring the members of Alice as backing musicians.