The iconic chorus is just wonderful and gets stuck in the listener’s head for days. Developing into a song of rich melodies and complex musical textures, this song switches from clean to heavy without any effort at all. Beginning with a clean guitar pattern, and a bass undertone, the beautiful melody sung by Staley and Cantrell is simply one of the purest things I’ve ever heard. Next is “Rooster”, which is quite simply the best song on the album. As with all AIC songs, the song’s repeating parts lets the listener keep up with where they are and the song makes perfect sense. Breaking down into a doom-y groove, the song’s character turns much darker. Staley’s wailing vocals perfectly complement this organised musical chaos. “Sickman” begins with a stunning drum pattern from Kinney, which is joined by a staccato guitar riff to power it up even more. This is a solid album track, and paves the way for what’s about to happen next. Slower than the first two songs, it’s impact is just as great.
Its deep groove and dark feel calls to mind early Black Sabbath, brought up on a diet of Led Zeppelin and Metallica. Jerry Cantrell is probably one of the most underrated guitarists in rock music, with his riffs and lead lines being simply peerless, and he shows it here.įollowing this is “Rain When I Die”, which is initially led by the bass guitar. The heavy guitars here sound more metal than grunge, further enhancing their crossover appeal. Next up is “Dam That River”, which is another odd time song and is in possession of a killer main riff. The rhythm section of Inez and Kinney just keeps things perfectly solid and what we end up with is one of the most successful rock tracks of the early 90s. The effect is wonderful, and is a signature of the AIC sound. Opening with the furious “Them Bones”, this odd time song is wonderfully accessible and offers the first insight into Staley and Cantrell’s haunting double lead vocal harmony lines. With their seminal album “Dirt”, the band bridged that maligned musical gap between grunge and metal, and really took the world by storm.Ĭomprised of singer Layne Staley (RIP), guitarist Jerry Cantrell, bassist Mike Inez and drummer Sean Kinney, the band hit their stride straight away. However, one band had that crossover appeal into metal and with their dark, brooding lyrics and melodies, became the thinking man’s grunge band. Plenty of bands came out of that Seattle hotbed in the early 90s, including Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. I always thought that grunge was an interesting concept.
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