A slow, dark and brooding song, with some of the most powerful and impactful vocals ever recorded with the equally touching instruments in the background. This is finally cemented when we see the longest track on the album. When we arrive at the fifth track, ‘Rooster,’ The fact that we are 20 minutes in to what is shaping up to be a once in a lifetime experience is setting in. The only way I can think of explaining it, would be comparing it to an hourglass where the sand isn’t a uniform size, with parts of the song speeding up at unexpected times, (in a good way) finding the perfect balance of safe and dangerous sound. Finding a song that has a lot of strange elements and an even stranger tempo. We get to track four, ‘Sickman’ and have gotten to our first extraordinarily bizarre sounds on this record another case of the classic Indecisive speed style that they have become known for. For the first time we see a case where they made one of their songs better by just getting it to slow down a little. Considering its immense length of 6:08, it’s truly a testament to how talented they have become looking back to the blunders from the previous record. Track three ‘Rain when I die’ leaves us wondering, “Is there going to be a mediocre song in this album at all?” It beings with some slow and calm drums, which slowly but surely, shows us that Alice In Chains is now really capable of doing slower songs that aren’t unreasonably drawn out. We soon realize this as the second track, ‘Damn that River’ immediately starts into another fast and heavy intro. Leading us into an extremely well rounded song that almost leaves you wishing it were longer, treating us to an addictive drum and guitar tune perfectly harmonising with the vocals. Learning from their mistakes the first time around, Alice in Chains opted to not include as many slow paced or drawn out songs. “Them Bones” offers an amazingly fast and heavy opening that transitions into an incredible chorus followed up by a truly unforgettable guitar solo.
#ALICE IN CHAINS DIRT ALBUM SONGS FULL#
We are reminded very quickly with the intro track, ‘Them Bones,’ of the fact that Alice in Chains is not a typical Grunge band, only but a step away from being a full fledged Metal band. In 1992 Alice in Chains released the very experimental Dirt. After a mediocre tour with Slayer and Megadeth, in which they were booed off the stage on several occasions, Alice In Chains decides its high time for a new album. It is a year of fierce competition since 1992 also saw the release of such well received albums as Megadeth’s Countdown to Extinction and Pantera’s Vulgar Display of Power, among many others. Grunge was only getting bigger and bigger. The sudden and unexpected success of Nirvana’s second studio album, Nevermind in 1991 gave many Grunge bands the opportunity to ride off Nirvana’s wave of intense radio and MTV airplay. It’s 1992 and the musical world has been taken by storm, with the Grunge genre dominating charts the world over. It is also said, however, that a follow up album is equally important when you are faced with success. It is often said that a band’s first album is their most important work, as it lays the groundwork for fan favourite songs and allows the band to figure out which ways they can experiment safely with their sound. In this review we will take a look at the expertly crafted follow up, and gaze upon what is quite possibly one of the greatest albums ever recorded. In my last review we talked about Alice In Chains’ debut album, Facelift and the early days of the Grunge genre.