GOT ME WRONG - MELONCHOLY AMONGST THE ALICE IN CHAINS RAGE

I was never too sold on grunge in the early 90`s, or period for that matter, but the one band from Seattle who stood out from the crowd and could even make impress an alternative rock critic like me on the odd occasion was ALICE IN CHAINS. Formed in 1987 by guitarist JERRY CANTRELL and singer LAYNE STALEY, who already then had an aweful addiction to narcotics, ALICE IN CHAINS broke onto the world stage and displaced traditional hard rock forever with the revolutionary debut album FACELIFT. Although not the band's biggest selling album, that distinction goes to the drug fueled and sinister 1992 album DIRT, FACELIFT perfectly escapulated the alternative rock sound while still retaining the melodic dynamics of 80`s hard rock - the quinessential crossover album bridging the 80`s and 90`s. Generally Cantrell's guitar playing was an amalgam of grunge and metal influences, but on songs like GOT ME WRONG, which comes off the band's second EP SAP from 1992, he proved just what elegance on the guitar he was capable of. ALICE IN CHAINS were wracked from the beginning with substance abuse within the band, particularly on the part of Staley, you can tell listening to the FACELIFT album that at that stage the band was still in control, but when you listen to DIRT which was two years later, by then you know the band were imploding and going right off the deep end. The crazy son of a bitch bass guitarist and singer TOM ARAYA from thrash metal band SLAYER made a guest appearance on a few songs off DIRT, including the gut wrenching song THEM BONES. The band's third EP JAR OF FLIES (1994) included some very decent acoustic flavoured alternative rock songs in the tradition of NEIL YOUNG, which was followed up by another dark and brooding full length self titled album in 1995, which sold well but not as good as DIRT. The band did self destruct after 1995 and reformed over ten years later, but minus Staley, who died of a drug overdose sometime in the early 2000's. I'll leave the rest for another time (laugh), feel like going to bed and having a sleep.