Alice In Chains Albums Ranked From Worst To Best
1. Dirt
After Facelift, Alice were ready to take their sound to the masses. Although they may have been riding the wave of the alternative scene alongside bands like Pearl Jam, you could tell that Layne Staley was starting to dance a little too close to the flames with his heroin habit. Instead of the flameouts many would expect from this kind of behavior, Alice hunkered down and channeled all of their demons into Dirt.
From the word go, this album feels like a long slow trail into the depths of Hell, with Them Bones practically jettisoning you into the chaos. Across every song, you can hear that Jerry Cantrell has really come into his own as a melody writer, with songs like Down in a Hole and Rooster being some of the most beautiful pieces to come from the grunge (or metal) scene. Despite having some of the best riffs of his career, this really is Staley's shining moment, as he wrestles with his demons and strikes gold on tracks like Rain When I Die and almost recontextualizing the Andy Wood tribute song Would? entirely.
Whereas most other albums send you on a journey into faraway lands, this is an album that makes you feel like the woman on the cover, slowly sinking with little to no hope for survival. This is certainly not an optimistic album from back to front, but the more you listen, the more you hear the depth underneath.