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Alice In Chains

Alice In Chains's Genre:

Alternative Metal, Grunge, Heavy Metal, Alternative/Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock, Hard Rock

Biography

In many ways, Alice in Chains was the definitive heavy metal band of the early '90s. Drawing equally from the heavy riffing of post-Van Halen metal and the gloomy strains of post-punk, the band developed a bleak, nihilistic sound that balanced grinding hard rock with subtly textured acoustic numbers. They were hard enough for metal fans, yet their dark subject matter and punky attack placed them among the front ranks of the Seattle-based grunge bands. While this dichotomy helped the group soar to multi-platinum status with their second album, 1992's Dirt, it also divided them. Guitarist Jerry Cantrell always leaned toward the mainstream, while vocalist Layne Staley was fascinated with the seamy underground. Such tension drove the band toward stardom in their early years, but following Dirt, Alice in Chains suffered from near-crippling internal tensions that kept the band off the road for the remainder of the '90s and, consequently, the group never quite fulfilled their potential.

Staley formed the initial incarnation of the band while in high school in the mid-'80s, naming the group Alice N Chains. Staley met Cantrell in 1987 at the Seattle rehearsal warehouse the Music Bank and the two began working together, changing the group's name to Alice in Chains. Cantrell's friends Mike Starr (bass) and Sean Kinney (drums) rounded out the lineup, and the band began playing local Seattle clubs. Columbia Records signed the group in 1989 and the label quickly made the band a priority, targeting heavy metal audiences. Early in 1990, the label released the We Die Young EP as a promotional device and the song became a hit on metal radio, setting the stage for the summer release of the group's debut, Facelift. Alice in Chains supported the album by opening for Van Halen, Poison, and Iggy Pop, and it became a hit, going gold by the end of the year. As the band prepared their second album, they released the largely acoustic EP Sap in 1991 to strong reviews.

Prior to the release of Alice in Chains' second album, Seattle became a media sensation thanks to the surprise success of Nirvana. As a result, Alice was now marketed as an alternative band, not as a metal outfit, and the group landed a song, the menacing "Would?," on the Singles soundtrack during the summer of 1992. "Would?" helped build anticipation for Dirt, the group's relentlessly bleak second album that was released in the fall of 1992 to very good reviews. Following its release, Starr left and was replaced by Mike Inez. Dirt went platinum by the end of 1992, but its gloomy lyrics launched many rumors that Staley was addicted to heroin. Alice in Chains soldiered on in the face of such criticism, performing successfully on the third Lollapalooza tour in 1993, which helped Dirt reach sales of three million.

The band released the low-key EP Jar of Flies in early 1994. It debuted at number one upon its release, becoming the first EP to top the album charts. Despite the band's continued success, they stayed off the road, which fueled speculation that Staley was mired in heroin addiction. Later that year, Staley did give a few concerts as part of the Gacy Bunch, a Seattle supergroup also featuring Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, the Screaming Trees' Barrett Martin, and John Saunders. The group subsequently renamed itself Mad Season and released Above in early 1995. Later that year, Alice in Chains re-emerged with an eponymous third album, which debuted at number one on the American charts. Again, the band chose not to tour, which launched yet another round of speculation that the band was suffering from various addictions and were on the verge of disbanding. The group did give one concert -- their first in three years -- in 1996, performing for an episode of MTV Unplugged, which was released as an album that summer. Despite its success, the album did nothing to dispel doubts about the group's future and neither did Cantrell's solo album, Boggy Depot, in 1998.

Cantrell basically released Boggy Depot because he couldn't get Staley to work, but its very existence -- and the presence of Inez and Kinney on the record, not to mention Alice producer Toby Wright -- seemed to confirm that the group was on moratorium at best, and defunct at worst. Staley, for his part, stayed quiet, conceding his spot on Mad Season's second album to Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan. In 1999, Sony put together a three-disc Alice in Chains box set, Music Bank, divided between the group's best work and assorted rarities. At the turn of the new millennium, Columbia Records issued Live, which plucked material from bootlegs, demos, and festival shows covering the years 1990, 1993, and 1996.

As if the group hadn't been repackaged as many times as possible with its limited repertoire, a ten-track best-of set, Greatest Hits, appeared in July 2001. With no sign of the group reclaiming their spot atop the alt-metal heap (and such copycat acts as Godsmack, Days of the New, Puddle of Mudd, and Creed taking the Alice in Chains formula to the top of the charts), Cantrell completed his sophomore solo effort, Degradation Trip, in 2002. But just two months before the album's release, in April 2002, the news that every Alice in Chains fan had been fearing for years had finally come to pass: Layne Staley was found dead due to a lethal overdose of cocaine and heroin. (Former bassist Mike Starr also battled his own addictions through the years, and in fact appeared on the VH1 reality show Celebrity Rehab in 2010; Starr continued to fight chemical dependency until his death in March 2011 in Salt Lake City, Utah.) Although understandably grief-stricken, Cantrell launched his solo album's supporting tour according to schedule, opting to open shows in the summer for another Alice in Chains-influenced band, Nickelback. Alice in Chains spent the next few years in limbo, eventually reuniting in 2005 for a benefit show with Damageplan vocalist Pat Lachman filling in for the deceased Staley. After rotating through a handful of different singers, the group eventually settled on Comes with the Fall vocalist William DuVall, who appeared on the group's 2009 comeback record Black Gives Way to Blue.

Black Gives Way to Blue was a successful comeback, debuting at five on the Billboard 200 and going gold in the U.S. and Canada, while racking up two Grammy nominations. The group toured into 2010 and then in 2011 set to work on another album, titled The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, which arrived in the summer of 2013. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Greg Prato

AOL Radio Stations Alice In Chains is Featured on (21)

Soundgarden: Legacy

At Lollapaolooza 2010, Soundgarden sat down with Slacker Radio for an exclusive interview on the eve of their first concert in 13 years. Soundgarden: Legacy on Slacker Radio plays segments from that interview with Soundgarden, music spanning their entire career as a band, songs from bands that members of Soundgarden have played in, and music from artists that helped to establish and define the "Grunge" era along with Soundgarden.

Rocklahoma 2013

The Midwest's biggest rock fest returns to Pryor, OK May 24th, 25th, & 26th. ROCKLAHOMA 2013 is back with yet another amazing lineup with headliners Guns N' Roses, Bush, Alice In Chains, Bullet for my Valentine, Korn, and Cheap Trick. Plus a ton more bands like, Papa Roach, Halestorm, and Hollywood Undead. Listen to them all right here!

Grunge: 20 Years Later

August and September 2011 mark 20 years since the release of Pearl Jam's Ten and Nirvana’s seminal album Nevermind, two records that forever changed the course of music history. Slacker DJ Marco Collins- who worked at legendary Seattle radio station "107.7 The End" during the Grunge explosion- is your host on this station. You'll hear the bands that influenced the Grunge movement, the artists that were right in the middle of it, and the bands that followed. You''ll also hear exclusive interview content from Marco Collins' archive with artists like Chris Cornell, Courtney Love, and Mike McCready. Grunge: 20 Years later on Slacker Radio is a conclusive look at a local movement that changed rock music forever.

'90s Rock

Ten years of Rock. Spanning all things rock in the 90s. From Metal to Grunge, Seattle to NYC, 90's Rock on Slacker has it. The hits by Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, and Metallica are all here. Plus deep cuts from Alice In Chains, Faith No More, and Rage Against the Machine. If it rocked in the 90's, it's here on 90's Rock.

Beale St. Music Festival 2013

The 2013 Beale Street Music Festival marks the 37th anniversary of the festival which each year attracts music enthusiasts from all 50 states and a dozen foreign countries to the storied city where rock-n-roll and blues music all began. Beale St. Music Festival 2013 on Slacker features all of the artists from this year's amazing lineup including headliners like The Black Keys and Alice in Chains, plus everything from Sheryl Crow to Big Boi

Alt. Hard Rock

Alt. Hard Rock on Slacker Radio delivers the harder, edgier, rock side of the Alternative music world. You'll hear staples like Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam and Nirvana as well as the the latest from the Foo Fighters, Linkin Park, Green Day and more.

'90s Alternative

90's Alternative on Slacker Radio highlights one of the most profound decades of Alternative Music. You'll hear the powerhouse artists of the Seattle grunge movement including Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden and the Screaming Trees. You'll also get a heaping helping of non-Northwest classics like Stone Temple Pilots, The Smashing Pumpkins and Sublime as well as recalling the Punk resurgence with classics like Green Day's "Dookie" or the Offspring's "Smash" and the offbeat sounds of The Flaming Lips, Beck and Cake.

Hard Rock

Hard Rock on Slacker Radio is the way Rock is supposed to be...good and hard. You'll hear the best new music from bands like System of a Down, Chevelle, Saliva, Tool, Korn, Shinedown, Metallica, Disturbed as well as deeper album cuts from your favorite Rock bands to give you the full hard rock experience.

Rock

Rock on Slacker Radio is a tribute to all things rock, from AC/DC to Disturbed. You'll hear everything that rocks with no filler and no acoustic guitars.

New Rock First

New Rock First on Slacker Radio is for Rock fans that want to be the first to find out about new music. Emerging bands, new releases, and songs that are too hot for the radio- it's all here, and it's all brand new.

Classic Alternative

Call it "Alternative," "Modern Rock," "College Rock" - call it whatever you like. Classic Alternative on Slacker Radio is all of those things and more- from the golden age of Alternative. Spanning various decades, this is radio for people that were raised on 120 Minutes. David Bowie, The Clash, The Smiths, Erasure, Depeche Mode, New Order, INXS, Midnight Oil, R.E.M., 10,000 Maniacs, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Weezer, and many more!

Rock Hits

Fitz Madrid is your host for Rock Hits on Slacker Radio. It’s the best of the catalogue from Metallica, System of a Down and Nirvana with a little classic rock for spice. You'll also hear new music from bands like Shinedown, Nickelback, Breaking Benjamin and many more.

Alternative Hits

Alternative Hits on Slacker Radio plays the biggest songs in Alternative Music. From the top of the charts to the songs on the rise, you'll hear the hits, old and new, from Green Day, The Killers, Red Hot Chili Peppers and many more.

Alternative Workout

Even Alternative people like to work up a sweat. With this in mind, Alternative Workout serves up a continuous barrage of high energy tunes from the complete Alternative spectrum. We've got grunge, punk, and all decades of Alt-rock covered. Let's do this already.

Party Rock

Party Rock on Slacker has your party tunes covered with classics from AC/DC, Metallica, and The Stones. You'll also hear the latest from the Foo Fighters, Korn and System of a Down to keep your party rocking for hours. Have a few drinks, and party hard. We will rock it for you.

'80s Rock

The '80s was the decade of decadence and music was no exception. From bands like Poison and Cinderella who celebrated excess to U2 and R.E.M., that rebelled against it, '80s Rock on Slacker Radio covers the best rock the ‘80s had to offer.

4th of July Celebration

Celebrate the U.S.A. on the 4th of July with patriotic music and summer fun songs. Festive Independence Day hits, party oldies and stirring marches. 4th of July Celebration on Slacker is your soundtrack to the holiday weekend and America’s independence.

'00s Rock

'00s Rock plays your favorite fist pumping post-grunge and nu-metal. Slacker's '00s Rock goes deeper on the decade that gave you Disturbed, Shinedown, Seether, Godsmack, and more. If your ears are ringing, you're listening to '00s Rock.

Halloween

We cracked open the crypt to bring you the most terrifying tunes this side of the graveyard. You’ll hear creepy classics, freaky film scores and eerie effects to put a chill in your bones.

Soft Rock

Soft Rock on Slacker is a true rock station that showcases the lighter, more contemplative side of the biggest names in rock-n-roll. No sappy love ballads or lame pop songs here...just great soft rock from Coldplay, U2, Bruce Springsteen, John Mayer, Snow Patrol, Dave Matthews Band, Train, and more!

Alice In Chains

This station plays the best music from and music from related artists like Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, Faith No More, Jerry Cantrell, Filter, Mad Season, Stone Temple Pilots, Nine Inch Nails, Chris Cornell, Audioslave and more.

All Stations

Alice In Chains's Selected Discography (33)

The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here Album Cover

Unplugged

(P)1996 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.199613 Songs

Artists Related to Alice In Chains (50)

	Soundgarden	Soundgarden made a place for heavy metal in alternative rock. Their fellow Seattle rockers Green River may have spearheaded the grunge sound, but they relied on noise rock in the vein of the Stooges.
	Temple of the Dog	Temple of the Dog was a one-album project conceived in 1990. The purpose of Temple of the Dog was to pay tribute to the late Andrew Wood, the lead singer of Mother Love Bone, who died of a heroin overdose in 1990.
	Faith No More	With their fusion of heavy metal, funk, hip-hop, and progressive rock, Faith No More has earned a substantial cult following.
	Jerry Cantrell	Jerry Cantrell first came to prominence as a member of Alice in Chains, one of the prototypical Seattle grunge bands.
	Filter	Richard Patrick (vocals, guitars, bass, programming, drums) and Brian Liesegang (programming, guitars, keyboards, drums) both experimented with electronics early in their careers.
	Mad Season	Quite a few side projects containing members of renowned Seattle-based rock bands appeared through the '90s.
	Stone Temple Pilots	Stone Temple Pilots were able to turn alternative rock into stadium rock; naturally, they became the most critically despised band of their era.
	Nine Inch Nails	Nine Inch Nails were the most popular industrial group ever and were largely responsible for bringing the music to a mass audience.
	Chris Cornell	Originally finding success as the frontman of Seattle's Soundgarden, rock vocalist Chris Cornell forged a successful career after the band's 1997 demise, both with the supergroup Audioslave and as a diverse solo artist.
	Audioslave	When Zack de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine in October 2000, the band's future was put into question.
	Tool	Tool's greatest breakthrough was to meld dark underground metal with the ambition of art rock. Although Metallica wrote their multi-sectioned, layered songs as if they were composers, they kept their musical attack ferociously at street level.
	Helmet	Like many influential bands, Helmet were born out of an unusual set of influences. Oregon-born guitarist and founder Page Hamilton had actually moved to New York City to study jazz, but found inspiration in the late '80s through post-punk acts Sonic Youth, Killing Joke, and Big Black, and envisioned a group that combined then-unusual tunings (particularly dropped D) with uneven and jazz-like time signatures and harmonies.
	Primus	Primus is all about Les Claypool; there isn't a moment on any of their records where his bass isn't the main focal point of the music, with his vocals acting as a bizarre side-show.
	Candlebox	Candlebox rode the grunge bandwagon to multi-platinum success in the early '90s, despite howls of protest from the Seattle faithful who considered their music a watered-down version of the genuine article.
	Mother Love Bone	Before Pearl Jam, there was Mother Love Bone. Future Pearl Jam members Stone Gossard (guitar) and Jeff Ament (bass) were founders of this Seattle-based glam/punk outfit, which was fronted by flamboyant singer Andrew Wood.
	Rage Against the Machine	Rage Against the Machine earned acclaim from disenfranchised fans (and not insignificant derision from critics) for their bombastic, fiercely polemical music, which brewed sloganeering leftist rants against corporate America, cultural imperialism, and government oppression into a Molotov cocktail of punk, hip-hop, and thrash.
	Danzig	During his time in the seminal hardcore band the Misfits, vocalist Glenn Danzig displayed a fascination with outlandish, graphic, often gory imagery; in forming the more heavy metal-oriented band Samhain, Danzig's lyrics delved into typical metal subject matter, but took the concept of darkness to an extreme.
	White Zombie	For metalheads who thought bands like W.A.S.P. and Mötley Crüe just weren't menacing or heavy enough, White Zombie was the perfect antidote for a period of time during the mid- to late '90s, as they fused B-horror movie visuals and subject matter with heavy music and growled vocals.
	Silverchair	Silverchair quickly rose to international stardom in 1995 by mining a mix of Nirvana and Pearl Jam on their debut album, Frogstomp.
	Monster Magnet	Retro-rock visionaries Monster Magnet spent much of the 1990s struggling against the prejudices imposed upon image and sound by alternative rock fashion nazis.
	Seven Mary Three	Within the alternative world, Seven Mary Three have often been compared to the mainstream-sounding, garage/arena rock of post-Ten Pearl Jam, but the group insists that their refusal to alienate themselves from the rest of the world makes them different.
	Bush	Led by guitarist/vocalist Gavin Rossdale, Bush became the first post-Nirvana British band to hit it big in America.
	Local H	Best known for their unorthodox two-man lineup, hard rock act Local H have made a career out of straddling the fine line between indie and classic rock, cleverly framing their sardonic lyrics with a generous helping of power chords and feedback.
	Eddie Vedder	Along with Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder reluctantly became a celebrity and an alt-rock spokesman when his band, Pearl Jam, hit the big time in the early '90s.
	Screaming Trees	Where many of their Seattle-based contemporaries dealt in reconstructed Black Sabbath and Stooges riffs, Screaming Trees fused '60s psychedelia and garage rock with '70s hard rock and '80s punk.
	Toadies	Best known as the creators of the 1995 grunge staple "Possum Kingdom," the Toadies formed in 1989 and spent their infancy playing shows in Fort Worth, TX.
	A Perfect Circle	Formed by Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan and former Tool guitar tech Billy Howerdel, A Perfect Circle is an extension of the alt-metal-fused-with-art rock style popularized by Tool in the early to mid-'90s.
	Deftones	Deftones were one of the first groups to alternate heavy riffs and screamed vocals with more ethereal music and hushed singing -- spawning a fair amount of imitators in their wake.
	Porno for Pyros	Perry Farrell's post-Jane's Addiction band, Porno for Pyros, followed the same path as his previous band, combining art rock, punk, heavy metal, and funk into one shrieking whole.
	Motörhead	Motörhead's overwhelmingly loud and fast style of heavy metal was one of the most groundbreaking styles the genre had to offer in the late '70s.
	Rob Zombie	The longtime frontman for metal superstars White Zombie, Rob Zombie was born Robert Cummings on January 12, 1966, in Haverhill, Massachusetts, forming the group soon after moving to New York City circa 1985.
	Sponge	Sponge was one of the more underrated groups in the post-grunge boom of the mid-'90s. When they were on top of their game -- as evidenced by the hits "Plowed" and "Molly (Sixteen Candles)" -- the band's songs had a knack for jangly riffs and catchy, anthemic hard rock hooks, despite being wrapped in the fuzzy guitars and brooding seriousness that typified grunge music.
	Kurt Cobain	As the lead singer and guitarist of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain's musical success began in his twenties and was heightened when he formed the band Nirvana.
	Megadeth	After he left Metallica in 1983, guitarist/vocalist Dave Mustaine formed the thrash metal quartet Megadeth.
	Hole	Throughout Hole's career, vocalist/guitarist Courtney Love's notorious public image has overshadowed her band's music.
	Marilyn Manson	Love him or hate him, the self-proclaimed "Antichrist Superstar" -- Marilyn Manson -- was indisputably among the most notorious and controversial entertainers of the 1990s.
	Corrosion of Conformity	One of the first punk-metal fusion bands, Corrosion of Conformity (C.O.C. for short) were formed in North Carolina by guitarist Woody Weatherman during the early '80s.
	Black Label Society	After falling out with mentor Ozzy Osbourne following the recording sessions for 1995's Ozzmosis, guitarist Zakk Wylde struck out on his own with his first solo album, Book of Shadows, in 1996.
	Biohazard	Biohazard was one of the first bands to regularly incorporate elements of both hip-hop and hardcore metal into their sound; since their lyrical fare dealt with the harshness of urban life and the resulting anger and frustration, which both genres of music have been known to address, the connection only made sense, especially in light of Anthrax's highly effective collaboration with Public Enemy on 1991's "Bring the Noise.
	Jane's Addiction	Jane's Addiction were one of the most hotly pursued rock bands when they gained notice in Los Angeles in the mid-'80s, with record companies at their feet.
	Pantera	The preeminent metal band of the early to mid-'90s, Pantera put to rest any and all remnants of the '80s metal scene, almost single-handedly demolishing any notion that hair metal, speed metal, power metal, et al.
	Soul Asylum	Few bands have had a more complicated relationship with commercial success than Soul Asylum. In the 1980s, they lurked in the shadows of the Minneapolis alternative rock scene, then dominated by the Replacements and Hüsker Dü, and their first tenure on a major label ended with the band being unceremoniously dropped after their expected commercial breakthrough was both a critical and a sales disappointment.
	Anthrax	Nearly as much as Metallica or Megadeth, Anthrax were responsible for the emergence of speed and thrash metal.
	Ugly Kid Joe	Ugly Kid Joe (whose name is a response to Pretty Boy Floyd) formed in Isla Vista, California, and features vocalist Whitfield Crane, guitarists Klaus Eichstadt and Dave Fortman (who replaced Roger Lahr), bassist Cordell Crockett, and drummer Mark Davis.
	Queens of the Stone Age	Formed from the ashes of stoner rock icons Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age reunited the group's singer/guitarist Josh Homme, drummer Alfredo Hernandez, and bassist Nick Oliveri along with new guitarist/keyboardist Dave Catching.
	Prong	Rising out of the expansive early '90s thrash metal landscape, New York's Prong carved a niche all their own with their minimalist urban take on the genre.
	Stabbing Westward	Vocalist Christopher Hall and keyboardist Walter Flakus met in 1985 and formed the industrial rock band Stabbing Westward in Chicago.
	Live	Live rose to success on the strength of its anthemic music and idealistic, overtly spiritual songwriting, two hallmarks that earned the group frequent comparisons to U2.
	Type O Negative	New York goth metal quartet Type O Negative were led by vocalist/bassist/songwriter Peter Steele and featured guitarist Ken Hickey, keyboardist Josh Silver, and drummer Johnny Kelly.
	Cracker	During Cracker's heyday in the 1990s, the Virginia-based band molded elements of alternative pop/rock and country into several irreverent, buzzworthy anthems.