10 Greatest Rock Instrumentals

Alice in Chains' EP Jar of Flies was a one of the most dramatic turns the band could have made after the metallic dirge that was 1992's Dirt. Rather than being more agonized stomper tracks, these tunes were some of the most gorgeous ballads to come out of the decade. For as beautiful as these songs are, the very real struggles of the band's members comes in musical form on "Whale and Wasp."

While most of the band's previous effort showed singer Layne Staley trying to deal with his addictions, this song captures all the pain that comes with being an addict. The entirety of the song is Jerry Cantrell's electric guitar lines, which start off playing a melody that seems just off-center. Though that line is intriguing on its own, the real emotional turmoil comes when the bends come in.

These harmonized guitar bends are incredibly simple in practice, but the actual sound of it taps into every little bit of pain that you have in your heart. The kind of pain that this song expresses eventually became all too real when Staley eventually succumbed to his demons in 2002. Whereas most AOC songs had a glimmer of hope peeking through the cracks, this is the band's purest expression of melancholy. A prayer for hope that's not going to come true.