10 Rock Bands That Never Sold Out

10. Alice in Chains

In the early days of Alice in Chains, things were definitely a lot different than the band that we know and love today. Instead of the sludgy riffs and the grunge aesthetic, here was a band that was much more attuned to the sounds of bands like Guns N Roses than Mudhoney. Once they came back home to Seattle though, they have never really looked back from Facelift.

In each iteration of the band, Jerry Cantrell has proven himself to be a pure riff machine, going for something that fits somewhere between the sounds of stoner rock and the raw aggression of more harsh metal acts like on songs like We Die Young and Dam That River. While many of the grunge purists would like to think that the classic version of the group died along with Layne Staley in 2002, they still haven't lost their touch in the latest iteration with William DuVall.

Off the strength of songs from Black Gives Way To Blue and even the more recent output on Rainier Fog, they've kept the spirit of their early albums intact, all while integrating the mellow acoustic side of their sound into the mix like what we got used to on Jar of Flies. Sure, the sound may be a bit dour for some to take in, but this the kind of melancholy that can somehow stay so damn beautiful.