10 Hard Rock Albums Everyone Forgets About

When looking at the Seattle scene as a whole, Alice in Chains don't seem to get nearly the credit they deserve for really kicking down the door for the genre. Even though they did have a regrettable phase of trying to turn themselves into a glam band with Alice N Chainz, their debut Facelift actually predated the release of Smells Like Teen Spirit, first exposing fans to this sludgy form of alternative metal before anyone else. No one can play that kind of music forever, and Alice wanted to kick back on their next project.

During some downtime in between making albums, Jerry Cantrell had originally been commissioned money by Cameron Crowe to make a soundtrack song for the movie Singles, which became the song Would? off of the album Dirt. After cutting the song though, Alice had some money left over and used the extra studio time to create SAP, their first EP of all acoustic songs, which hit just as hard as any of their distorted material. Even if fans were a little perturbed at the time, songs like Brother and Got Me Wrong were as strong as what had come before on Facelift, with the acoustic instruments tapping into something a lot more haunting.

Of all the other records on this list though, this is practically the definition of a hidden gem, with the band doing virtually no promotion for it and releasing it in record stores for the die hard fans to pick up on their own time. There's a tender side to all of Alice's material...you just might have to put a little more effort into finding this one.