Alice in Chains

With such songs as "God Smack" and "Hate to Feel" crammed thick with junkie rage and
Oedipal tension, Dirt (1992) is the musical equivalent of coughing blood – harrowing and
real. Dense guitars spin ominous, flattened melodies: the sound of cages rattling. Acoustic
leaning, the new seven-song EP from the Seattle quartet Alice in Chains is subtler – strings
lighten "I Stay Away," and "Whale and Wasp," an instrumental, is darkly gorgeous... More >