Alice in Chains (album)

Alice in Chains (sometimes informally referred to as the Dog Album or Tripod) is the third studio album by American rock band Alice in Chains. It was released on October 31, 1995, by Columbia Records, and was the follow-up to the highly successful Dirt (1992). This is the band's first full-length studio album to feature bassist Mike Inez, their last studio album to feature original lead vocalist Layne Staley, and their final studio album to be released through Columbia.
For a year and a half, Alice in Chains had not played any live shows, citing Staley's health issues. In the meantime, Staley joined the supergroup Mad Season and recorded the album Above (1995), leaving the future of Alice in Chains in question. In addition, Staley's growing heroin addiction led to growing rumors of his death. Shortly after the release of Above, Alice in Chains set out to create their third album, with the intention of putting an end to the gossip surrounding the band.
Recorded at Seattle's Bad Animals Studio with Toby Wright, the album's songs focus on heavy emotional content and subject matter such as drug addiction, depression, spirituality, broken relationships, and the internal tensions within the band fueled by Staley's substance abuse. The album's music relies less on metallic riffs and more on melody and texturally varied arrangements, some integrating some of the more delicate acoustic moods of their EPs, and others introducing late 1960s and early 1970s rock influences.
Alice in Chains was released in the twilight of the grunge era, and the band did not participate in any of their own touring for the album due to Staley's ongoing addiction. The only live performances to support the release came through television appearances, one of which was recorded for MTV's Unplugged series, as well as a brief run of shows as an opener for Kiss. Nevertheless, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and stayed on the chart for nearly a year. The tracks "Grind", "Heaven Beside You", and "Again" were released as singles. "Grind" and "Again" were nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. The album was certified double platinum by the RIAA and has sold over three million copies worldwide. The album was the band's last for almost 14 years; Staley died from a drug overdose in 2002, which caused the band to dissolve. The band eventually emerged with Black Gives Way to Blue in 2009 with new co-vocalist William DuVall.
After the release of Jar of Flies, vocalist Layne Staley entered rehab for heroin addiction, and drummer Sean Kinney struggled with alcoholism. The band had been scheduled to join the Shit Hits the Sheds Tour during mid-1994 with Metallica, Suicidal Tendencies, Danzig, and Fight, including a stop at Woodstock '94, but while in rehearsal for the tour, Staley arrived to a practice session high. Kinney refused to perform with Staley in his condition, and the band eventually decided to cancel all their scheduled dates one day before the start of the tour. Alice in Chains' manager, Susan Silver, was forced to release an official statement that all the group's live appearances for the foreseeable future had been cancelled due to health issues among the band members. They were replaced by Candlebox on the tour. After the statement was released, the musicians stopped communicating with the press. Numerous rumors sprang from the cancellation, including that the band had broken up and that Staley had died from AIDS. Members of Metallica mocked Staley on the tour. The band would imitate the first verse of "Man in the Box", and frontman James Hetfield replaced the lyrics with "I can't tour", while his bandmates would pretend to give themselves injections. According to Kinney, "Nobody was being honest with each other back then. [...] If we had kept going, there was a good chance we would have self-destructed on the road, and we definitely didn't want that to happen in public."
During this period of inactivity, each of Alice in Chains' members took part in side projects. Bassist Mike Inez appeared on Slash's solo album It's Five O'Clock Somewhere. Kinney and the band's guitarist Jerry Cantrell each contributed songs to the Willie Nelson tribute album Twisted Willie; it was Cantrell's first experience working on material outside of Alice in Chains. Cantrell then decided to work on material originally intended for a solo album, with the working title Jerry's Kids. Staley's direction, however, cast doubts over the future of the band when he joined what would become the "grunge supergroup" Mad Season, a band founded by solo artist John Baker Saunders and Pearl Jam's Mike McCready. As the brainchild of McCready, who met Saunders at a Hazelden rehab clinic, the band was intended to be a project that united musicians recovering from addictions. After recruiting Screaming Trees' Barrett Martin, the three invited Staley to be their vocalist. After an October gig and several jam sessions under the name Gacy Bunch, the musicians changed their name to Mad Season and went to the studio, where they recorded Above. Mad Season's performances at local venues in Seattle, which included some Alice in Chains songs, appeared to contradict prior reports made about Staley's health and fueled rumors that he had left Alice in Chains. These reports irked Cantrell, and he halted work on his solo album in favor of attempting to revive Alice in Chains.
When Jerry Cantrell first began thinking about releasing a solo album in 1994, he tried jamming with several drummers, among them Josh Snyder of Tad and Norman Scott of Gruntruck. Cantrell and Scott recorded demos of new songs at Cantrell's in-home studio; Cantrell's guitar tech, Darrell Peters, was at the 16-track mixing console. The two musicians improvised on guitar and drums, after which Cantrell added bass and recorded guitar overdubs. A total of three songs were written; two of the songs, "Grind" and "Again", would appear on the upcoming Alice in Chains album. After Cantrell's home sessions, he reunited with Inez and headed to Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, Washington, bringing along Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson alongside producer Toby Wright. The strategy behind these moves was that Kinney and Staley, who were disillusioned with Alice in Chains, would find out about the sessions and change their minds. Wright recalled that Cantrell was prepared for Kinney and Staley to turn the offer down, at which point he would pivot back to using the material for a solo album, despite his reluctance to do so.
The recording sessions at Bear Creek were short and unproductive; the group spent $10,000 for a week's worth of time in the studio but was unable to record anything other than the croaking of frogs in a nearby pond, used for the album's eventual eleventh track, "Frogs". However, the reunion plan was successful; Kinney and Staley agreed to participate in the creation of a new Alice in Chains album. By January 1995, Kinney had rejoined Cantrell and Inez to work on new material; in May, Staley was invited back to join the band in the recording studio. Staley told Rolling Stone that the group ultimately came back together because during the band's split toward side projects, they "felt like we were betraying each other." While this was happening, Sony Music—the owners of the band's label, Columbia Records—seriously considered replacing Staley. Columbia also had Mad Season under contract; Sony weighed the merits of Staley's condition and whether it would be better for Staley to focus on working with Mad Season. When it became known that McCready was returning to Pearl Jam, the possibility of replacing his role in Mad Season and preserving the project was also considered. However, despite the prospective profits in keeping both bands active, Sony executives ultimately decided it was not worth the risk and let Staley focus on Alice in Chains.
Following the sessions at Bear Creek, Wright was brought back as producer for what would become the new Alice in Chains album. The band's A&R manager, Nick Terzo, who had once offered Wright a job with Alice in Chains as a sound engineer, was not pleased with the musicians' decision. Terzo considered Wright more of a technician than a producer and also believed that a producer was obliged to find a compromise between the band and the label. Wright fully supported the band's creative independence, which led to his selection for the production job. The band ignored Terzo and stated that they would only report directly to the heads of Sony Music, Don Ienner and Michele Anthony. Furthermore, the band barred Silver from entering the studio. Wright served as the only intermediary between the band and the management, and it was through him she learned of progress on the album. Although Wright emphasized that the idea of distancing from management belonged to the musicians, he did not oppose because he wanted the band to leave all their problems out of the studio to focus on the music. Despite the commercial success of the group's previous works, Cantrell considered making music that would make the band's fans happy to be the main goal, with Staley adding the band also wanted to create something the band themselves would also enjoy. Ultimately, the band was given full creative control, without a specific deadline or budget. However, when Toby Wright met Ienner in New York before the studio session began, Ienner was skeptical about the project and was sure that Wright would not be successful or productive. Wright recalled "sitting in Donnie Ienner's office in New York before we started the record and him telling me, 'Good luck,' because he didn't think I'd be able to get a record out of them."
Work on Alice in Chains began at Bad Animals Studio about a month after the March 1995 release of Mad Season's Above. The band chose Bad Animals not only because of its proximity to where Staley lived but also the greater amount of space for recording over other options. When work began, the musicians did not have any finished songs, though Cantrell had several ideas to work with from the earlier demo sessions. The band would then give the demo tapes to Staley so he could write lyrics. In the absence of completed material, the band decided to simply jam together until finding something that would work instead of spending time on pre-production, as they had done on Jar of Flies. Most often, jams began with Cantrell and Kinney, as the two had the greatest musical chemistry developed between them. Instrumental parts were recorded during live sessions with the whole band; first, the structure of the song was outlined, and then – after 15-20 performances, memorizing their parts – the musicians recorded the best takes. Wright largely relied on his own intuition when deciding when a take was good enough; some were worth leaving the first take, while others took many attempts, sometimes to the point of postponing the recording until the next day. Even then, a song could undergo significant changes: new sections could be added or old ones removed. This usually happened when fine-tuning vocal harmonies in the recordings. Staley would write lyrics to those finished recordings that he liked and skip the others.
For the convenience of the musicians, Wright established a virtually round-the-clock work schedule. He accommodated the band members whenever the group was comfortable doing so in order to maximize creative efforts, as opposed to forcing a 12-hour standard workday. Staley's addiction often led him to be late or absent for recording and rehearsal sessions, so Wright's assistant Sam Hofstedt was given a pager to notify him when Staley was available to work, regardless of time of day. On one occasion, Wright summoned Hofstedt to the studio at 1:00 a.m. after Staley had arrived. If Staley had previously tried to hide his drug use from those around him, it became obvious during the recording of the album. Hofstedt recalled, "It seemed apparent to me he was using, because when you go to lock yourself in the bathroom for a while, it's not because you really like the bathroom." Staley was seen openly using drugs once, though it served a purpose in recording a song (which became "God Am").
Bad Animals was equipped with the latest equipment, including a Solid State Logic G-Series mixing console. The recording process used 48 channels, so Wright had to plan their distribution carefully, reserving space for instruments before any other work on a song began. Sometimes, in order to save money, it was necessary to use the same track for several instruments, such as an acoustic guitar and a guitar solo; Inez called these "George Martin effects". The mixing was carried out with little participation of the band, who held full faith in Wright and only approved the final result. In addition to songs, almost everything else that happened in the studio was recorded, including conversations between the musicians while working. This allowed them to experiment with and take note of various combinations of guitars, amplifiers, and settings and later choose the best result. Hofstedt estimated that over 70 rolls of magnetic tape were used with this approach, remarking years later that the budget for the tape cost roughly an entire modern album production budget.
Wright's first focus was on the drums. As with Jar of Flies, the drum kit was surrounded by a wide array of microphones: a Sennheiser MD 421 and AKG D-12 for the bass drum, AKG 414s above the kit, D-12s on the toms, and an ACG C451, Shure SM57, and Sennheiser MD 441 for the snare. Wright admitted that he considered this configuration optimal and used it on most of his recordings, not just with Alice in Chains. Sean Kinney made a point of not using a metronome during the recordings, which made the songs more "living and breathing"; the tempo could fluctuate slightly but noticeably in different parts of the songs, following changes in dynamics. Kinney wrote all the drum parts except for "Again", which was written by Scott in the demo sessions with Cantrell. Cantrell asked Kinney to replicate Scott's part, which forced Kinney to change his approach.
Most of Cantrell's guitar recordings used three tracks: left and right for rhythm guitar and one in the center for the lead part. By contrast, their previous studio album, Dirt (1992), typically used six to eight guitar tracks, but Cantrell deliberately reduced their number to achieve a more natural sound. He initially played the lead part on his main G&L guitar using a Bogner Fish amplifier, then followed by playing it back on another guitar with a different amplifier, where additional effects and nuances could be added. The recording also used a Marshall amplifier, a 25-watt Celestion speaker system, and a Peavey preamplifier. Aside from the G&L, the guitar Cantrell most often used was a 1952 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop. The guitarist had been renting the instrument from a local shop for several years to record previous albums until he finally managed to convince the owner to sell it. He also managed to buy an early 1960s Fender Stratocaster, which was also used on numerous occasions during the recordings. Nancy Wilson also lent Cantrell a Les Paul Junior and a twelve-string acoustic during the album's recording. Wilson's bandmate in Heart, Howard Leese, loaned Cantrell a set of guitar pedals. His favorite among them was the Dunlop Cry Baby wah-wah, but he also made use of another Dunlop pedal, the Rotovibe (at the end of "Frogs"), a Maestro Phaser, and a Sustainiac sustainer (on the chorus of "God Am").
Although most of the instruments were re-recorded at Bad Animals, some parts were taken from the demos. For example, Wright insisted on using the very first take of the guitar solo for "Grind" – dating back to Cantrell's home studio sessions. Cantrell objected, long considering it unfinished and not ready. He tried to re-record it but eventually gave in to Wright's persuasion, and the solo was added to the final mix directly from Cantrell's ADAT tape recorder. Also remaining unchanged was the drum part for "Over Now", taken from a demo version of the song recorded at London Bridge Studios; the song's origins dated back well before the creation of Alice in Chains.
The part that took the longest to record was Staley's vocals. This was partly due to the fact that lyrics were written after the band had already entered the studio. Staley also wanted to experiment with different performance styles and tried out several different polyphonic arrangements before committing to final recordings. He even learned to use the recording equipment himself, preferring to be alone in the control room and perform songs over a pre-produced instrumental accompaniment using a handheld microphone. Only after Staley had decided on his approach would he allow the studio staff to enter the room and begin tracking his vocals. His parts were usually recorded in one or two takes. The microphone most often used for recording vocals was a Soundelux U95, which was slightly modified by Toby Wright. A notable exception was Staley's distorted voice on "Grind", which used a 1932 Turner Crystal microphone that Wright bought at a pawn shop for ten dollars.
The signature vocal harmonies that had become a feature of Alice in Chains' previous work were present in more abundance throughout the songs. As before, the vocalists were often not present during the tracking of each other's parts and performed their parts separately, only listening to the finished result. Toby Wright compared Staley and Cantrell to the Lennon-McCartney duo and admitted that although he often criticized Alice in Chains' live performances, when it came to lyrics and melodies, he had nothing to complain about.
Because of Staley's drug use, no one knew for sure when and in what condition Staley would appear in the studio next. The question of stopping work on the album was raised numerous times, but Wright held on, sometimes organizing breaks of several days so that all of the participants in the project could rest and get emotional release from the situation. When it became apparent that the vocal recording was slowing the process, Ienner and Anthony decided to intervene. They called Staley one morning, congratulated him on the RIAA gold certification of Mad Season's Above, and issued him an ultimatum: finish the recording in the next nine days. Wright was issued his own ultimatum: if Staley was not present at the studio each of those days, Columbia would halt production of the album. Though he responded emotionally when Wright gave him the news, Staley complied, and the album was finished in August 1995.
During their four-month period at Bad Animals from April to August 1995, the band wrote over 25 songs. Twelve songs were selected for the final tracklist, with a total duration of 65 minutes. Several instrumental compositions did not make the cut; these recordings were sent to Columbia, and Wright believes they may still be in the label's possession, unused in Cantrell's future solo projects. When the recording was completed, Wright was pleased with the result, and the project was sent off to be mixed at Electric Lady Studios in New York. The producer particularly singled out the songs "Shame In You", "Heaven Beside You", "Grind", and "God Am", the latter of which he recommended to be released as a single. He believed that the band had released a landmark album that would not disappoint listeners. Cantrell said of the experience, "It was often depressing, and getting it done felt like pulling hair out, but it was the fucking coolest thing, and I'm glad to have gone through it. I will cherish the memory forever", while Staley added, "I'll cherish it forever, too, just because this one I can remember doing".
Stylistically, the band integrated the sounds of both Dirt and Jar of Flies on Alice in Chains, offering both heavy compositions played in lowered guitar tunings as well as acoustic approaches combining melodic harmonies with dissonant guitar riffs. This wide range of styles is displayed by the "super heavy" "Grind" and "Head Creeps" to the more melodic "Over Now". The dark and depressive nature of the music also remained unchanged. Jerry Cantrell admitted in an interview with Rolling Stone around the release of the album that "[o]ur music's kind of about taking something ugly and making it beautiful". Despite the genre-blending, the band primarily stuck to their heavy metal roots, mixing metal with blues, rock and roll, and even punk rock. Others described the album as grunge or hard rock.
While heavy guitar sounds continued to be a hallmark of the band's sound on Alice in Chains, Rolling Stone noted influences from Cream, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and the Allman Brothers Band on the record's calmer songs and ballads, suggesting this "hazier, more otherworldly aesthetic" may have been the result of "sleepless nights and controlled substances." By contrast, The Los Angeles Times described most of the album as frequently shifting between "teeth-gnashing metal, bluesy acoustic songs and pop-friendly, chorus-heavy tunes". Much of the music was co-written by Cantrell and one or both of Inez and Kinney during rehearsals in the studio. There were three exceptions: two of Cantrell's songs from his home sessions, "Grind" and "Again", were written alone, and Staley wrote "Head Creeps".
The guitar sound on Alice in Chains was more natural than previous albums, with Cantrell using fewer tracks and effects; he significantly shortened and simplified his solos, more often improvising them in the studio instead of planning them out in advance. Among those guitarists who influenced him during the creation of the album were Brian May, Lindsey Buckingham, Jimi Hendrix, Tony Iommi, Jimmy Page, Robin Trower, and David Gilmour. As was typical with the band's full-length recordings, most of the songs were recorded in drop D. There were three songs that made it onto the album, however, which deviated from this tuning and used an open tuning: "Shame In You", "Nothin' Song", and "Over Now". This approach, which Cantrell had never utilized before, was conceived after a guitar he had loaned a friend was returned to him tuned that way.
Staley's vocal style on Alice in Chains differed significantly from the band's previous albums, using effects liberally. For instance, he employed a pitch shifter alongside several layers of vocals on "Sludge Factory", and distortion on "Head Creeps" added a distinctive buzzing sound to his voice, reminiscent of a beehive. According to Ground Control, "syllables are spat regularly, some letters are almost hissed through... he sounds almost feral and it's more eerie and surreal." Cantrell sang lead vocals on three songs: "Grind", "Heaven Beside You", and "Over Now", all of which he also wrote lyrics to. He originally did not wish to contribute lead vocals as much as he did, but Staley and the others insisted he sing on these tracks.
Alice in Chains was already known for their depressing lyrics, raising themes of drug addiction, despair, social alienation and isolation, loneliness, and disappointment. The band reprised their dark lyrical character on Alice in Chains, but introspective misery was mostly replaced by bitter, more vindictive attitudes; Jon Pareles of the New York Times framed the lyrics envisioning "most of the outside world as gossiping, two-faced persecutors", likening it to Michael Jackson's HIStory (1995). Although the lyricist at times displayed the band's conventional themes, occasionally even admitting his guilt, such as in "Shame in You", most often he was angry at those around him, blaming his friends, loved ones, and the media for his troubles. On "Grind", Cantrell wrote that he wished "to hear the sound of a body breaking when I knock you down", while Staley denounces rumors spread by the media as "lackeys' loose talk for fact" on "Head Creeps".
Cantrell also wrote the lyrics for the songs for which he sang lead vocals. "Grind" was written during his solo recording session with Scott and is a response to rumors involving Staley's death and the band's breakup. Cantrell thus summarized it as a "'Fuck you for saying something about my life' song." "Heaven Beside You" was written after the end of Cantrell's seven-year relationship with his girlfriend. On the liner notes of Alice in Chains' Music Bank box set, Cantrell described the song as an attempt to come to terms with the fact that his personal life caused the two to split; he added, "All the things I write about her are a way for me to maybe speak to her, express things I could never express." "Over Now" deals with the complexities of the band's personal relationships. The chorus asks the question and addresses the band members: "Could you stand right here, look me straight in the eye and say that it's over now?" According to Cantrell, when he asked the band members this, they could not ultimately break up.
The rest of the lyrics were written by Staley, whose lyrics consisted of "whatever was on [his] mind". He did not actively seek inspiration from outside sources, ignoring the media, instead relying on his emotions and the world around him in the moment. Staley described this to Rolling Stone as "record[ing] a few months of being human." By the end of the prolonged recording process, where Staley wrote all his lyrics, he was finding it increasingly difficult to write lyrics, and in the same Rolling Stone interview, he admitted that if he had been asked to sing the new songs, he would not have been able to do so because he did not remember his own lyrics. The singer was in poor health, suffering from ever-increasing heroin use and having lost a significant amount of weight. This consequently inspired lyrics filled with despair and thoughts of death from his addiction; other songs touch on themes of fame obsession and relationships.
In "Brush Away", he wondered whether the band and their work were being taken seriously or if they were considered a joke or fad, while "God Am" asks a higher power why it was passively watching cruelty and heartlessness. "Sludge Factory" was written about the ultimatum call Staley and Wright received from Ienner and Anthony. The two told Staley and Wright they had nine days to finish the record because they had already taken a lot of studio time, and Staley references this directly. "Nothin' Song", which was written in the latter part of the recording phase, comprised the first thoughts that came to Staley's mind. This included the line "Sam, throw away your cake", addressing Hofstedt. While the band was in the studio working on the album, Hofstedt's birthday passed, and he was given a cake in the shape of a naked woman. The cake was never finished and lay partially eaten for at least a month. "Again" and "Frogs" both recount the betrayal of a friend.
Reflecting on the album in a 2018 interview with Noisey, Cantrell said:
Work on the artwork for Alice in Chains began immediately after the recording of the album was completed. The concept was conceived by Kinney; the front cover features a three-legged dog, similar to one that chased him in his childhood when he was working as a paperboy. The back features a photograph of sideshow performer Frank Lentini, who had three legs, playing a mandolin. The shot of Lentini was taken from an exhibition of Ripley's Believe It or Not!. The number three was symbolic of multiple things to the band: it was the band's first full-length studio album in three years after Dirt and represented rumors of Staley's death, thereby being only three remaining band members. In the words of Ground Control, "signs that something is just not right appear everywhere both on and in Alice in Chains;" they go on to detail how the album's booklet demonstrates with "images of ghastly, contorted fairies with no flesh on their arms, sinister, personified bottles swimming through black oceans, cartoons of mutant animals standing on trial, [and] synthetic limbs" among other unsettling images.
The band's photographer, Rocky Schenck, did a casting for three-legged dogs for the album's cover art, including one in downtown Los Angeles on August 23, 1995. Staley and Cantrell were unsatisfied with the result, and the group ended up choosing a fax with the image of a three-legged dog as the cover art instead. Staley and Cantrell thought the faxed image looked grittier and was thus more appropriate for the album. The photo of the dog shot by Schenck was finally used on the 1999 box set Music Bank. Another three-legged dog named Sunshine appeared in the music video for "Grind"; contrary to rumor, none of the dogs used for the photoshoot, music video, or album cover belonged to Cantrell.
Kinney originally suggested naming the album Tripod, after the dog that followed him as a child and inspired the album's cover art. The rest of the band did not like the name, but no other ideas were suggested, so it was decided to self-title the album. Though the name was not official, the self-titled effort gained the nickname Tripod anyway. It has also been referred to as the Dog Album or Dog Record.
The band's Japanese distributor was not receptive to the artistic meaning behind the cover art and objected to its release, believing the band was mocking injured animals. When Alice in Chains was finally released in Japan, the art for the album had been replaced with a blank, white cover with the dark blue text "Alice In Chains" appearing inside of a dark blue border in the bottom-right corner.
"Grind" was released as the first single from the album on October 6, 1995. It was chosen for its heaviness, perceived musical appeal, and its lyrics, which urged the band not to be written off despite press reports relating to their turmoil. A bootlegged, unfinished version of the song had already leaked, and the song was released earlier than planned to combat the spread of the bootleg. The song peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart (later called Mainstream Rock Tracks) and number 18 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
On October 31, Alice in Chains was formally released on vinyl; CD and cassette copies were available on November 7. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, moving 189,000 copies in its first week; it stayed on the chart for 46 weeks. It has since been certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In January 1996, Cantrell claimed that the band would tour in support of the album, but the members later opted not to tour, adding to the rumors of Staley's drug abuse. When asked about the frustration of not touring to support the record, Cantrell provided some insight into how Staley's addictions led to repercussive tensions within the band: "We rode the good times together and we stuck together through the hard times. We never stabbed each other in the back and spilled our guts and do that kind of bullshit that you see happen a lot."
"Heaven Beside You" was released as the album's second single on January 29, 1996. "Heaven Beside You" peaked at number 52 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart, at that time becoming Alice in Chains' second-highest charting domestic single after "No Excuses". "Heaven Beside You" also peaked at number three on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and at number six on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. "Heaven Beside You" was quickly followed by "Again", which by mid-February had already been added to rock radio; it peaked at number eight on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. It also peaked at number 36 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.
To help promote the album, Columbia asked the band to create an electronic press kit. Normally, the band would talk about themselves and their work, but the group instead chose to create a mockumentary in the style of Spinal Tap, titled The Nona Tapes. Directed by Schenck, the project fictionalized how the band members spent their free time when they were not working. Cantrell portrayed two characters: as himself, he was shown shoveling manure at a horse stable, but for most of the project, he was disguised as a female journalist, Nona Weissbaum. Weissbaum's character takes a car ride around Seattle, interviewing the other three members of Alice in Chains. Kinney performed as Bozo the Clown and was later filmed drinking at a bar in-costume. Inez was portrayed as a member of the band against his will, with his family held at ransom by the rest of the band; however, when he supposedly read in a magazine that his band had split, he started running a hot dog stand in downtown Seattle. Staley was shown digging through a dumpster; his interview responses were overdubbed with different responses than were recorded. The editing was Staley's idea.
Schenck considered the work one of the best experiences of all those he had with the band. Creating The Nona Tapes also convinced Schenck that the musicians could have also been good actors had they wished to be and mentioned this to several directors he knew. The band had previously appeared in film scenes, including a cameo on Cameron Crowe's 1992 production Singles; Cantrell would go on to make a cameo appearance on Crowe's Jerry Maguire in 1996, but aside from that, the band members were never seriously interested.
Conversely, Columbia did not like The Nona Tapes at first and considered it a waste of money. However, Columbia decided to sell it after the project became a cult hit, despite the band's objection. The video was released on VHS in December 1995.
After pulling out of the Shit Hits the Sheds tour in 1994, the musicians refused to give any interviews, even during the recording of the album. Despite the rumors surrounding the band as a result, Cantrell later explained that the new album was supposed to provide answers to all the questions that had been asked in the meantime. However, as the album proved to be successful on American charts, the band became more optimistic and cautiously began to respond to the press. Usually, it was Cantrell who would offer insight on journalists' questions. The musicians had to refute many times that the new album would be the band's last, as well as rumors regarding Staley's impending departure, his growing problems with drug addiction, and a solo album by Cantrell. Despite fervent press interest, the musicians kept their patience in addressing their absence and the gossip that followed. The band wanted to sound sincere and honest while maintaining modesty and avoiding the pathos of rock stars.
Among the publications interested in the return of Alice in Chains was Rolling Stone. After publishing a positive review in November, journalist Jon Wiederhorn was commissioned to write an article about the band. Wiederhorn, editor-in-chief Keith Maurer, and managing editor Sid Holt met with Silver in New York and discussed the details of how Wiederhorn would interview the band. In late 1995, Wiederhorn flew to Seattle, where he spent several days with the musicians, collecting material for the article. They dined, smoked marijuana, and played whirlyball, a game combining elements of bumper cars, basketball, and lacrosse. Wiederhorn talked to the entire band and to each of the members individually. In a conversation with Staley, he drew attention to the injection marks on his left arm; the vocalist admitted that he had never solved his drug problem. Work on the article continued during the Christmas holidays. In parallel, a representative of the magazine held a photo shoot with the musicians.
The article appeared in the February 1996 issue of Rolling Stone and, with the exception of mentioning the marks on Staley's arms, did not contain any controversial facts. However, the cover of the issue drew the band negative attention. The editing team had decided to put a photo of Staley on it, naming the cover story "The Needle & The Damage Done". The title was a reference to the song of the same name by Neil Young about heroin addiction. When Staley first saw the cover in a store, according to eyewitnesses, he nearly fainted. He was offended that the magazine did not keep its promise to publish an article about the whole band, rather than focusing on him and his personal issues. In addition, Staley was framed as the only drug addict in the group, although the others had dealt with similar problems. Wiederhorn defended his part in the article's creation, explaining that the decision for the cover and the tabloid-style headline was made in another department without his participation. He also claimed that the article was heavily edited, with most of his coverage of Inez and Kinney reduced to sparse mentions. He did, however, admit to bringing up Staley's drug use, stating that to ignore it would not be an honest depiction of the band: "I had an obligation to write about what the band was motivated by, what the band was dealing with, what some of the demons were."
Although the band did not embark on an official concert tour to support the album, the band was invited to do several individual performances. This started with an offer to do a segment for MTV Unplugged, which the group declined several times before accepting. The program featured bands performing concerts open to the public, with entirely acoustic setlists that were taped by MTV. The show took place on April 10, 1996, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Majestic Theater. Ienner, Anthony, and the members of Metallica were among those in attendance. The performance aired on MTV on May 28, and Wright was brought back to edit the live album associated with the concert.
The taping of the show, released as the live album Unplugged, was released on July 17, 1996, and debuted at number three on the Billboard 200. It was the first live performance the band held in over two years and the band's only concert in promotion of Alice in Chains, where they were the main event. The band would never perform another headlining show with Staley. The Unplugged version of "Over Now" was released as a promotional single in July 1996.
In the interim of the Unplugged performance and its television debut, the band made appearances on other television programs. On April 20, the band was a guest on Saturday Night Special, where they performed an electric version of "Again" for the first time. The band was introduced by actor Max Perlich, who had appeared in the band's music video for "No Excuses". On May 10, the band was the musical guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, where they performed a medley of "Again" and "We Die Young".
In what would be their final live performances during their original run, the band took an opening slot on a classic lineup reunion tour for Kiss. Titled the Alive/Worldwide Tour, Alice in Chains' opening slot was originally held by Stone Temple Pilots, but their vocalist, Scott Weiland, had drug issues of his own to address. The slot was instead awarded to Alice in Chains when Weiland entered rehabilitation. The tour began on June 28, 1996, in Detroit, at Tiger Stadium. Alex Coletti, who had produced the band's Unplugged performance, and Billy Corgan, frontman of the Smashing Pumpkins, were both in attendance at the Detroit show and praised their performance. However, Kerrang! reported that Staley appeared physically unhealthy from the first show of the run.
The band played four shows in total for the tour, making stops in Louisville and St. Louis, before a final stop in Kansas City on July 3. Silver, sitting backstage, had speculated with the band's tour manager that it would be the band's final live performance. During this performance, Kinney stood from his drum set and began to sing Kiss's "Beth", which in its original form had also been sung by the band's drummer, Peter Criss. The crowd was divided, with Kinney receiving both cheers and boos in equal measure; Kinney addressed that he was not wearing the proper makeup and jokingly told off the audience before the band moved into their next song. The Kansas City show would, in fact, be Staley's final live performance. After the show, Staley overdosed and was rushed to a Kansas City hospital. Although the band's appearance on the tour was brief, they ended up being part of the most commercially successful tour of 1996, grossing $43.6 million by the end of the year.
The group's only further activity with Staley was when they recorded two new songs, "Get Born Again" and "Died", in 1998. After that, Staley rarely left his condominium in Seattle. It was there where he died on April 5, 2002, from another drug overdose. The band would not emerge until 2005, at first to play a benefit show. When the band decided a few months later that they wished to tour again, the band brought in Comes With the Fall vocalist William DuVall as Staley's successor in 2006. DuVall had been in the audience at the Louisville show during their tour with Kiss nearly a decade prior, and it took nearly 14 years for the band to follow up Alice in Chains with Black Gives Way to Blue in 2009.
Alice in Chains was noted by some for being a musical progression for the band, with certain critics specifically noting a break away from the grunge label that had been affixed to the group. In contrast to their previous albums, Jon Pareles remarked in his review for The New York Times that Alice in Chains contrasted the raw distortions associated with grunge, instead sounding "cleanly delineated and meticulously layered". Jon Wiederhorn of Rolling Stone highlighted heavy influence from Jar of Flies and praised the lyrical honesty throughout the album. Noting that the songs "achieve a startling, staggering and palpable impact", he concluded that the album was a "musical rebirth" for the band. Conversely, Billboard's Paul Verna wrote that the album returns to the band's already well-known grunge sound and would thus be a hit with the band's core fans. However, he still acknowledged the band's more acoustic arrangements present on the album, likening them to Jar of Flies and the band's alternative rock peers R.E.M. People enthusiastically praised Staley and Cantrell's performances on the recording and claimed the "eerily compelling" music would fit well in a horror film, especially one by Wes Craven or Clive Barker. In a review of Alice in Chains' discography, Bill Adams of Ground Control Magazine appreciated how the tracks on Alice in Chains provided retrospective insight on the band's fragile situation and consequently comprised "twelve of the best [tracks] that the band has ever done".
Others found the record's sound to be dated or uninteresting. Nisid Hajari had similar observations to Verna but was less enthusiastic in his review for Entertainment Weekly. He noted that fans would quickly embrace Alice in Chains but dismissed most of the project as "a sludgy stew of cookie-cutter riffs and self-indulgent, introspective noodling rock", mentioning "Head Creeps" as a standout track. The Los Angeles Times' Cheo H. Coker found the album formulaic but marked "Heaven Beside You" as a high point for the record, lamenting that the band did not take more risks during production. In contrast to Terzo's opinion of Wright, Allmusic's Steve Huey remarked that Alice in Chains was the band's most well-produced record, placing "Grind", "Brush Away", "Heaven Beside You", and "Over Now" among the band's best tracks. Despite this, he felt that "[the album] should have turned out better than it did", mentioning that portions of the album were "undercrafted" and led to some forgettable recordings. Writing for Spin, Gina Arnold noted how grunge had become tiresome in mainstream media in the wake of punk rock bands such as the Offspring and that the album failed to make itself stand out from the group's previous efforts. The review published by Roy Wilkinson in Select was more negative. Select was a British publication, and grunge was largely rejected by the United Kingdom and its musical artists. Sharing much of the same sentiment, Wilkinson deemed the album a poor imitation of Black Sabbath and dismissed the lyrics as "the kind of banally pompous ire that makes a tabloid-hounded Michael Hutchence seem witheringly articulate."
Notes
Alice in Chains
Production