10 Metal Albums With ONE Bad Song
4. Iron Gland - Alice In Chains
Let me paint a hypothetical for you. You're Alice in Chains and just about to record your seminal album Dirt when the Rodney King verdict is read and mayhem breaks out in LA, not too far away from your studio. Like any sane person, you'd want to get out of town and cool out before really getting down to business. Except unlike any sane person, Jerry Cantrell decided to bring a goof off session back with him.
After hanging out in Joshua Tree, one of Jerry's ways to pass the time was by rehearsing, which started with him playing a bastardization of Black Sabbath's Iron Man riff. When he got back to the studio, the entire band hated it, and insisted that he stop playing if anything were to actually get done.
Towards the end of the sessions, Jerry cut the guys a deal: he'll use this as an interlude on Dirt and then never play the riff again. Although it may have seemed like a fair trade at the time, the fans were the ones who lost this battle in the end. While the track does have a decent atmospheric build, the whole thing just makes the rest of the record feel a little hollow by comparison. This is a descent into Hell...did we really need the cartoon version of the underworld too?