10 Greatest Guitar Solos Of The '90s

Before Nirvana had really shaken up the world of Seattle grunge music, Alice in Chains were actually the first ones to see mainstream success. During the pre alternative '90s, these guys were the ones actually taken seriously by the metalheads, earning themselves a spot opening for Slayer on the Clash of the Titans tour and even having an opening slot with Van Halen for a brief period. These guys were still born in Seattle, and that trademark darkness was going to come creeping back in eventually.

While there isn't that much substance to Them Bones being just under 3 minutes, it's the perfect way to be introduced to Dirt, taking the kind of sludgy riffs that came with Facelift and putting some added darkness in the mix, as Layne Staley talks about being reduced to bones in the next few years. Although the lyrics are already pretty tough to handle if you look at them closely, Jerry Cantrell's is practically screaming out in pain through most of the song, almost like it's physically hurting him to unleash all of this fury all at once.

Even when he pulls out different licks from the old school rock and roll acts of the '70s, there's a much more somber tone that comes with them, as he tries to unleash some sort of demon while he's playing. For all of the Seattle gloom that they were associated with, Alice in Chains always stood by their roots as a metal band, and this is practically the sound of classic rock crumbling down.