10 Artists That Ended Their Career With One Album

It would have made sense if Alice in Chains had decided to call it a day after releasing their EP Jar of Flies. Since Layne Staley was already trying to conquer his demons on the album Dirt, he was clearly not in a good spot singing these acoustic songs, as if he knew that his addiction was going to overtake him soon enough. By the time they did eventually get together for their self titled though, it felt like the beginning of the end.

While some of Alice’s greatest tracks land on this album like Grind and Heaven Beside You, you can tell that the band is being held together with string and duct tape at this point, with Jerry Cantrell taking almost a 50/50 share of the vocal duties while Layne tries to clean up his act. When Layne does come in for a verse though, his voice sounds much more muted this time around, knowing that he’s probably not able to hit the same blistering high notes that he hit in his prime because of just how messed up he is with drugs.

It’s that kind of demented sound that makes for something a lot more sinister on songs like Sludge Factory, but that wasn’t enough to save the album from being the last real Alice in Chains project. Outside of a one off concert that they did for MTV Unplugged, most of the classic lineup was done for good, going on hiatus to sort everything out until Layne was eventually found dead in his apartment in 2002. Alice have since reinvented themselves into a whole new beast with William DuVall behind the mic, but the original magic is never going to be heard again.