Opening with Nutshell – taken from Alice In Chains' third studio EP Jar Of Flies – the track has become a staple of 90s grunge, despite never being released as a single. Every song transforms from a powerful, angry and forceful catharsis to a frustrated and haunting lament. If you were to know nothing about the band prior to listening, odds are you'd still come away moved.ĪIC's down-tuned sludgy heavy metal somehow lends itself to the acoustic format. It's not just the tragic backstory that makes Alice In Chains Unplugged a poignant piece of work, the tracks themselves are what make it a truly formidable live record. (Image credit: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images) Acoustic Alice in Chains is nothing short of haunting "I wish I could just hug you all, but I'm not gonna," Staley proclaims at the end of the record – and we wish we could hug you right back, Layne. The album understandably garnered a resurgence of recognition after the death of Staley, with many media outlets – even those who had given the album initially scathing reviews – praising the power of performance despite his condition at the time. His once glowing, cheeky grin is replaced by a morose, pained half-smile, but nevertheless, his sense of humour is still prevalent and he immediately belts out Nutshell and continues to give a strong vocal performance throughout – a testament to his sheer natural talent. Sunglasses disguise his blackened eyes, long sleeves cover scars left behind from shooting up and he awkwardly clutches his hands together as if afraid to emerge from the shadows and take centre stage – quite different from the powerful vocalist we'd come to know and love. The original performance is therefore a chilling look at the tragic downfall of one of rock's most charismatic and enigmatic frontmen from glam rock loving metal star to the epitome of grunge – in the most negative sense of the word: a bedraggled junkie with scruffy pink hair awkwardly shuffles from the back of the stage and takes his seat. Staley overdosed following their concert in Kansas City on July 3 (opens in new tab) and despite the frontman recovering from the incident AIC were put on hiatus, and other than one brief recording two years later, where the band briefly reunited to record the songs Get Born Again and Died for Music Bank, Alice in Chains never played with Staley again. His final ever performance was in the same year, when Alice in Chains replaced Stone Temple Pilots in an opening slot for the newly reunited Kiss. So throwback to 1994 with me and revisit this classic track here.Alice in Chains Unplugged marked the second to last performance from Staley, who was battling a crippling addiction to heroin (opens in new tab) that was poignantly chronicled through the band's dark and agonising lyrics. It sounds so much more raw and real than so much of the music out there right now, it’s refreshing in its grunginess. Words for anyone fighting their own personal battles.īut I think it’s simply the sound of the song the emotion and music that really hit me this year. Lyrically, the track is powerfully introspective “We chase misprinted lies, We face the path of time, And yet I fight, and yet I fight This battle all alone”. The sparse acoustic chords and Stanley’s mournful vocals touched a nerve I didn’t expect. Listening to Chuck Klosterman’s nineties Spotify playlist (in honor of his new book about said decade), I heard Alice in Chain‘s “Nutshell” officially for the first time (I had previously heard a Ryan Adams cover of it) and I thought it was beautiful. I’m happy to say that finally changed this year. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to like and appreciate a number of songs by these bands, though with Alice In Chains, the only songs of theirs that I knew and liked were from the post-Layne Stanley line-up. I was eight when NEVERMIND was released, and growing up in LA, you couldn’t turn on KROQ without hearing Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots or Alice In Chains blasting out. I have to admit something: I was never a big fan of grunge growing up.
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