10 Rock Albums Made Out Of Obligation

There was no real point in having Alice in Chains survive past the making of Jar Of Flies. Even with Layne Staley being on the road to recovery for a few months, one too many relapses left him a shell of the frontman that he once was, never quite being able to reach the same screams that you hear on songs like Rooster or Rain When I Die. The Alice train had to keep moving though, and their self titled record was the first time that the band started to look like they were on their last legs.

Since Layne was hardly even making music anymore and delving more and more into his heroin addiction, half of this album feels like it was made for Layne's sake, giving him something to do that would keep him away from his demons if only for a little while. That doesn't mean that he shows up on every piece of this record though, only being kept to a minimum on some songs and letting Jerry Cantrell take the reigns for tracks like Heaven Beside You and Over Now.

For some of the hardcore Alice fans, some of these songs can actually be a little bit tough to listen to in spots, like the band trying to create something out of nothing on Nothin Song or moments where Layne could scream being left to just a whisper on Sludge Factory. They may have been hoping to be cleansed after Jar of Flies, but the dog record was the moment where we all started to realize that relief was never going to come.