Alice In Chains Review: Facelift

Alice In Chains

Facelift

Review Score:

(10/10)
Released just before the main seattle-based grunge scene, this is alice in chains' debut album sprouted from an unreleased demo, 'We Die Young', (I think)- which is actually the first track of 'Facelift', and what a start it is.
Aswell as 'Man in the Box', 'Bleed the Freak', 'Sunshine' and 'Sea of Sorrow' the first track has a great guitar solo along with guitarist Jerry Cantrell's fast trilling and Layne Staley's versatile vocals.
Facelift without a doubt , has the most powerful vocals by Staley than on any other AIC album especially shown in hit single 'Main in the box' and final stomper 'Real Thing'. These go great with AIC's trademark layered vocals beautifully presented on 'Sunshine'.
Although bassist Mike Starr and drummer Sean Kinney add superbly to this album, the quaking bass on 'It Ain't like that' and the high rumbling on the slowest song, 'Love Hate Love' added with sludgey drum patterns. Cantrell contributes most to this release- writing almost all the music and half the lyrics.
This is an exceptional debut when Alice in Chains were more a metal band rather than grunge in which they were categorised, but you can almost hear from the music where their music was headed, you can feel the pain seeping from your speakers during personal fave, 'Bleed the Freak' and 'Confusion'.
This was the hardest AIC album for me to get into but once you listen to it thouroughly you start to appreciate the artists contributions musically, like the great effect the guitar dynamics have on the frustration-influenced lyrics during the chorus of 'Put you down'. This is a superb debut and worth adding to your CD collection. Sexual Chocolate Baby!!! \m/

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