Alice in Chains

Alice in Chains is a popular rock band which traces its roots to Seattle, Washington in 1987. With over 10 million copies of their albums sold worldwide, the group has become known commercially as one of the most successful from the grunge music groups from Seattle.

Alice in Chains had Layne Staley, Jerry Cantrell, Mike Starr and Sean Kinney as its original members. The group’s name came from Staley’s former band, “Alice ‘N Chainz,” around the time when the group wrote their own material and played at Seattle clubs. After signing with Columbia Records in 1989, the band released its first original EP, “We Die Young” on July 1990. The said album was in preparation for the group’s first full album, “Facelift,” which was released later the same year. Of the singles in “Facelift,” “Man in the Box” and “Sea of Sorrow” ranked 18 and 27 respectively in Billboard’s U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks charts. The record itself is currently 2x Platinum.

“Sap,” the next EP release of Alice in Chains, featured acoustic music in which the songs “Would?” and “It Ain’t Like That” were used in the motion picture, “Singles.” The album itself features other artists like Ann Wilson of Heart, Mark Arm of Mudhoney and Chris Cornell of Soundgarden. It was the advance release of “Would?” however which would have the public anticipate the next LP which would eventually be called “Dirt.”

“Dirt” was released towards the later part of 1992 and remains the group’s most successful album at present. The said album has reached its first platinum at the end of 1992 and at present is 4x platinum already. “Dirt” gives character to Alice in Chains’ guitar-intense and distortion-filled music along with Staley and Cantrell’s distinctly intricate vocal harmonies. The singles “Would?” and “Them Bones” in 1992 and “Rooster,” “Angry Chair” and “Down In A Hole” in 1993, reached numbers 5, 24, 7, 34 and 10 respectively in the U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks charts of Billboard and numbers 11, 30, 30, 27 and 10 in the U.S. Modern Rock charts of Billboard. It was during the record’s promotion when Starr left the group and was replaced by Mike Inez.

January of 1994 saw Alice in Chains release its other EP, “Jar of Flies.” The said album would hit 2x Platinum in the U.S. and carried the singles, “No Excuses,” “I Stay Away,” and “Don’t Follow” which ranked numbers 1, 10 and 25 in the U.S. Mainstream Rock charts of Billboard respectively. The band’s self-titled album was released on November of 1995 and at present is already 2x Platinum. The songs “Grind,” “Heaven Beside You,” “Over Now” and “Again” would again rank well in the U.S. Mainstream Rock and U.S. Modern Rock of Billboard charts.