Okay, I know I'm posting about them twice in a row, but it's only because I found out this week that TODAY marks 30 years of Alice In Chains debut album, Facelift. And it is by far my favorite AIC album- so I have to talk about it.
Facelift was my introduction to Alice In Chains' music. And it was a doozy. At the time of discovering them, I was already into other 90's grunge staples such as Nirvana or Pearl Jam, having been raised with the latter. But I had never really listened to anything, well... heavy, yet. Metal was something I got into a little later, save a few nu metal childhood favorites. The album cover disturbed me, but that made it all the more enticing. Like watching a horror movie out of wanting to be scared, I pressed play on track one- "We Die Young". It came roaring through my computer speakers, and forced its way into my eardrums. It was heavy, loud, fast- and badass. A song about young people getting hooked on hard drugs, and meeting their untimely end because of it (a theme that would come up a lot in AIC's music). I was pleasantly surprised, and by track three, "Sea Of Sorrow", I had fallen in love, and for a while- had a new favorite band.
The story of Facelift for the band is also a bit of a doozy. Facelift came out before grunge was a mainstream genre at all. Sure, you had underground Seattle groups like Green River, or Mother Love Bone, who started it. But it wasn't until the rise of Nirvana that the scene really blew up. So without a "grunge" label stuck on them, Alice In Chains got put on tour with the likes of Slayer and Anthrax, in their early days. And it didn't go over well. They often got booed off the stage for not being "heavy enough". Though apparently singer Layne Staley would jump into the crowd and beat the hell out of anyone talking shit- which definitely still gave them some metal-scene cred. And then once the grunge scene got big, and nationwide, Alice In Chains faced a new challenge: After having been lumped in with metal groups, they were now too heavy for grunge, but too light for metal... Left at a sort of in-between genres state, Facelift often gets overlooked by today's fans and critics alike, with Dirt (1992) getting most of the praise, having been released at the height of grunge. But I'm here to tell you why Facelift is just as (if not more) deserving of praise.
Obviously, it contains one of their biggest, most recognizable songs- "Man In The Box". A crunching, grinding guitar, and terrifying, ominous lyrics, chanted and screamed by Staley, make for not only one of the band's greatest songs, but one of the greatest songs of the entire era. The meaning behind the words have been discussed by the band multiple times over the years, and has varied, but its overall meaning has been censorship. Staley also said that the farm animal imagery in the words, and in the music video, sprung from a conversation he had with some vegetarians from their record label, who told him about baby cows being raised and slaughtered in "boxes" (or unreasonably small enclosures) and he was moved by it. But he's also said he was "really stoned" when he wrote it, so that also explains the chanting and ominousness, to a degree. In any case, it's a hell of a song, and you can be reminded of its power by listening / watching below~
Then there's the slowed down, dark and gloomy, "Love, Hate, Love", which graphically describes a broken, abusive relationship, where both people's demons and flaws are laid out on the table. The band thinks (and I agree) that it is one of Layne's strongest vocal performances ever. He has been idolized by many for the emotion and rawness to his voice, in all AIC songs, but this one just might top them all. For me, the words haven't lost their stinging edge, even after all this time. It takes me there, makes me feel that emotional turmoil and pain from continually being hurt in a relationship, but still loving that person, and being unable to stop. It is because of Layne's ability to convey his emotions so well, that makes this song unbearably relatable, but also so beautiful. Listen to it for yourself, below.
This next one comes with a little "fun fact". In 1992, Alice In Chains had two of their songs, and a live performance, featured in my favorite movie of all-time, Singles, directed by Cameron Crowe. The concert filmed to be used in the movie, was of an actual Seattle club show the band was playing in '91, authentic and unscripted. While only segments of the songs are actually shown in the movie, in 2015 the full performance of both songs was released on Blu-ray, for this updated release of Singles. The songs played were "Would?", which would appear on the soundtrack, and their not yet released album Dirt later in '92, and "It Ain't Like That", off of Facelift. "It Ain't Like That" is an energetic headbanger, that drags the listener back from the depressive depths of "Love, Hate, Love" before it on the album, and makes them ready to mosh again. I think it is necessary in this discussion of Facelift to include a video of live footage of the band from that time, because their stage presence is another crucial part of what made them gain traction in the upcoming Seattle grunge scene. I'll link it here, since I can't embed the clip normally for some reason... so please click here to watch the full performance of "It Ain't Like That" live, for yourself. It really is something to behold- swinging dreads, moshing crowd, and Layne doing high jumps...just to name a few.
It's been 30 years since Facelift was released, and the Seattle grunge scene, and eventually the rest of the world, has never been the same since. It took some time after the album's release for the band to get the acclaim they deserved, but Facelift certainly paved the way for it. I personally find it superior to Dirt, and the rest of their discography (which is hard to say, because I love all of their albums), because of how heavy, but fun it still is. Dirt is overall darker, and more depressing lyrically, and while it is good for that, I think the energy behind Facelift is what makes it more powerful. It is the naivety and rawness of Facelift too, that speaks to me. The band had no way of knowing just how big "this thing" was going to get, and they made this record to tell the world who they were, without the word "grunge" even stuck to their backs yet.
Thanks as always for reading, and for celebrating 30 years of one of my favorite albums in the world with me! Have a rockin' weekend!
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| Alice In Chains, goofin' in 1991, photographed by Marty Temme. |
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