What with the release of their incredible new album, 'The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here', earlier this month, we thought we should get some essential Alice tracks buzzing round your head. The Seattle-based band were lumped in with the Grunge explosion of the late-eighties, early-nineties, but were never really belonged to it. Always seen as more of a "dirgey", doom-tinged band with a healthy Sabbath influence. In fact, Alice were always the majority of Metal-heads and Metal bands, band of choice from the North-West city. Metal fans themselves, the band were comfortable with their Hard Rock/Metal tag. Invited along on the 1990 Clash Of The Titans, predominantly, Thrash Metal tour featuring Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax, as the only non-Thrash band, opening every stop on the world tour. Metallica drummer, Lars Ulrich cites second album, 'Dirt', as one of his favorite albums ever released and three of the 'tallica boys were present at the bands legendary MTV 'Unplugged' recording. Slayer's Tom Araya even makes a guest appearance on 'Dirt'. Besides their unmistakable sound, the band were also infamous for their affiliation with heroin, with the majority of 'Dirt' being written about it. Never glorifying, but rather commentating on its effects on the mind, body and life in general. In some ways, there has never been a darker band than Alice and they still retain that hopelessly lost feel in their music to this day. Lead singer, Layne Staley, always seemed to know that he would lose his battle with addiction and on April 5th 2002, he died alone at his Seattle condo. He had been in a self-imposed exile for a few years. Understandably, the band took some time away from the Alice name and did other things before re-grouping in 2005 for a tribute concert and a year later, decided to continue on with new singer, William DuVall. This line up has released two excellent albums, 'Black Gives Way To Blue' and this years, superb, 'The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here'. Use this article as a means to discover or re-visit an incredible band that, against the odds, have delivered timeless and life changing Hard Rock.