Product Description

Long before the phrase, "Seattle scene" spoke of an impact that a new generation of musicians was having on rock music,Alice in Chains was struggling to be recognised in the shadow of bands that were more focused on image than craft. On FACELIFT, the band's major label debut, Alice in Chains proved that its fusion of blues, hard rock, and gritty imagery was a force to be reckoned with. While college radio stations ate up fare like "It Ain't Like That" and "We Die Young", the song "Man in a Box" became a banner track that pushed the band into the forefront of heavy rotation on MTV and the playlists of mainstream rock radio stations.
Vocalist Layne Staley's moody, dynamic vocals on "Love, Hate, Love" tell a chilling tale of a homicidal psychotic lamenting and musing over what he's done to his lover. On tracks such as "Sea of Sorrow" and "I Can't Remember", guitarist Jerry Cantrell shows equally impressive skill in Sabbath-styled riffing, blueslicks, and Hendrix-influenced solos. Alice in Chains made abrash musical and lyrical statement that gave the stale eraof thrash and hair metal a much-needed facelift.

Track Listing

1. We Die Young
2. Man In The Box
3. Sea Of Sorrow
4. Bleed The Freak
5. I Can't Remember
6. Love Hate Love
7. It Ain't Like That
8. Sunshine
9. Put You Down
10. Confusion
11. I Know Somethin' ('bout You)
12. Real Thing

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16201 in Music
• Released on: 1999-08-30
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Grunge rock pleasure
This is Alice In Chains debut album. And it's a heavy, hard rock/metal affair. While not as lyrically dark as their second album, and ultimate masterpiece, Dirt. It nevertheless establishes Alice In Chains outside of the underground. ALice In Chains were more metallic than their contemporaries and it's noticeable throughout the album. Top songs include: Man In The Box (which was heavily rotated on MTV), Sea Of Sorrow, Real Thing, We Die Young. They became regulars on college radio in America, but didn't breakthrough until their second album DIRT. Which I recommend you buy as well. I just love this album to bits. This is one of the most important breakout records from the early 90's that helped establish grunge (and Seattle) as a force to be reckoned with. It will be looked back years to come as one of the defining rock albums of the nineties.

Birth of AIC
"Facelift" was AIC's surge into the grunge limelight. It has become regarded as something of a classic over the years, showing the roots of one of the best bands from the grunge scene. While I feel "Facelift" comes up lacking when compared to the band's later LP's (their career pinnacle "Dirt" and the menacing self titled release), it is a great album, and worthy of a place in any rock/grunge collection.

There is no lack of good song writing on "Facelift". The album contains a bunch of AIC classics, such as the one-two punch of "We Die Young" and "Man In A Box", both AIC at their catchiest and heaviest (As a side note, I saw the band's new line-up this summer in Toronto and "Man In A Box" has lost absolutely none of its power - it was one of the highlights of the show, with the whole crowd booming along to the chorus and headbanging relentlessly to the lead riff). Other standouts of the album include the menacing "Bleed The Freak", the slower "Love, Hate, Love" and the unapologetic brutality of "It Ain't Like That". All of these songs hit hard with typically excellent Cantrell riffs and solos and of course the glorious vocals of the late Layne Staley. While other parts of the album become a little repetitive, especially towards the end of the album, "Facelift" is a very pleasurable outing into the boom of grunge and one of its most important bands.

one of the most definitive albums of rock...
I have only had 'Facelift' for a few weeks now but my god what an album it is. Songs like 'We Die Young', 'Sunshine', 'I can't remember' and of course the subliminal 'Man in the box' are beautifully crafted and catchy songs that truly show what a talented group of people they were and what potential they had. I seriously haven't stopped listening to this album since i got it and it has made me buy their 'live' album and their third self-titled album that is also one hell of a dark gem. Alice in Chains to me were of course one of the best bands to come out of the 'Seattle' scene but i wouldn't catergorise them into the whole media-made grunge genre (i wouldnt class any band into that genre!)...they are simply an amazing band and this, their debut, is one hell of a record. enjoy!