10 Darkest Hard Rock Songs Of All Time
2. Rain When I Die - Alice In Chains
For all of the angsty music that was coming out of Seattle in the early '90s, something about Alice in Chains always felt painfully real. Although there were a lot of different bright spots in their music, the way that Layne Staley sang always tapped into something a lot more primal that just your standard rock and roll anger. And on Dirt, we got a shot of Layne looking his addiction right in the face on Rain When I Die.
Anyone who's ever heard this entire album knows how much heroin was influencing Layne around this time, with songs like Godsmack and Dirt giving you a clear picture of a man trying to hold it together. Out of all of the tracks on here though, Rain When I Die is Layne getting brutally honest about his dependency, almost like he knows that this is a fight that he wasn't going to win.
As much as the opening scream at the beginning of each chorus sounds absolutely amazing, something tells me that he wouldn't have been able to hit it that convincingly were it not coming from a genuine place. Ever since Layne's passing though, this song just feels all the more tragic to listen. It's practically the sound of a man praying for some relief and knowing that it's not going to come.