10 Late Career Bangers From Huge Rock Bands

The grunge-fuelled 1990s should have been the glory days for Alice In Chains. Musically, they were; the band were one of the decade’s very best. They were also perfect for the time as they straddled the divide between alternative rock and all-out metal in a way Metallica tried and failed to mimic.

Alas, the band’s internal strife made their salad days a drug-fuelled nightmare that resulted in a hiatus from which, it was hoped, vocalist Layne Staley might emerge a healthy, if battle worn rock ‘n roll success story. In 2002, it was confirmed, once and for all, that this would not be the case. Staley died as he had lived, akin to his Seattle contemporaries Kurt Cobain and Andrew Wood before him and Chris Cornell many years later, a tragic indictment of the excesses of rock.

It was surprising, then, in 2005, when surviving members, Jerry Cantrell, Mike Inez and Sean Kinney decided to reconvene. It may not have been quite as controversial as if Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic had reformed Nirvana with a new frontman, but it still felt, a bit weird. To be fair, if any one member of any band can truly take credit for being the star player, in Alice In Chains it was always Cantrell.

The band have released three albums since 2009, all are great, but 2009’s Check My Brain is the banger that best fits the bill of sounding like a pop hit, or at least Alice In Chains’ version of one.