10 Perfect Albums Where Metal Went Alternative

Of all the bands that came out of the Seattle scene, Alice in Chains were one of the few that seemed legitimately proud of their metal credentials. While acts like Nirvana were busy rebelling against the glitter rock bands and thrash acts that had come before them, Alice was a much different beast, making sludgy riffs and even going on a handful of tours with metal giants like Megadeth and Slayer. When you stripped away all of the heaviness from their sound though, Alice was a lot more melancholy, and Dirt is still one of the darkest records the alternative scene has ever dealt with.

Coming off the road for Facelift, the band were all suffering with their own addictions, and what you hear on this album is them trying to cleanse themselves of their demons in song. Compared to the raw anger on a song like Man in the Box, you can feel that Layne Staley's screams on songs like Rain When I Die or Angry Chair are coming from a genuine place, having gone through his struggles with heroin addiction and trying his best to stay on the straight and narrow.

Outside of the heavy tunes though, this feels more like a document of what the band had to deal with to stay together, taking all of that inner turmoil and making something beautiful out of it, like the smooth vocal harmonies going on between Staley and Jerry Cantrell on the beginning of a song like Rooster. Most of this record tends to feel like you're walking through a swamp and emotionally sinking, but there's still shades of light peeking through the cracks here.