10 Bands Who Released Genre Defining Second Albums

Alice In Chains announced themselves on the world stage when their debut album Facelift landed in 1990, and its lead single Man In The Box became a huge MTV hit. In the following year all eyes were on their hometown of Seattle as a number of bands - including Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden - all released critically acclaimed albums that sold by the bucketload, helping to create the ‘grunge’ label bestowed by the music press as a way to catagorise the alternative rock sound that was coming from the area.

And it was with their follow-up album, Dirt in 1992, that Alice In Chains created the record that would define them as a band, becoming a pivotal record in the genre also. Considered a pure rock masterpiece, Dirt is a dark and melancholic collection of songs that took Alice In Chains in a bleaker direction that also imprinted on the hearts of millions. Dirt has sold over 5 million copies worldwide and is considered to be the band's true magnum opus.

Dirt is immortalised in part due to the fact that singer Layne Staley completely stopped making music just 4 years later and saw out his days living as a recluse, having succumbed to the drug addiction that was largely responsible for inspiring the lyrical content of this amazing record. His vocal melodies with guitarist Jerry Cantrell are legendary, with the two perfectly executing their song writing on classics such as Them Bones, Would? and Down in a Hole.