Line #13 YMMV/AliceInChains


1	* {{Anvilicious}}: Pretty much the only way ''Dirt'' could be less subtle is if it consisted of nothing but Layne screaming "HEROIN RUINED MY LIFE" over and over again for an hour. [[note]]Except for "Rooster", which is screaming "[[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar THE VIETNAM WAR]] WAS HELL!" for over six minutes, "Dam That River", which is Cantrell saying "Hey, Sean, fuck you for smashing a coffee table over my head, asshole", and "Them Bones", which is two minutes and thirty seconds of "life sucks and then you die".[[/note]] And he was ''absolutely right''! Anyone with similar addictions would be wise to take it as a cautionary tale.
2	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: So much to choose from. ''Dirt'' and ''Jar of Flies'' in their respective entireties are considered their absolute best work, with ''The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here'' as a close third.
3	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment
4	** "Iron Gland."
5	** "Love Song". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm3lqTOhRAw Just listen to it.]] It's likely that they were extremely drunk and/or high when they recorded it, but nothing has been confirmed.
6	* BizarroEpisode: The ''Sap'' EP, the song "Right Turn" in particular. Staley and Cantrell had Music/ChrisCornell of Music/{{Soundgarden}} and Mark Arm of Music/{{Mudhoney}} guest star in that track. The results are weird to say the least, especially the ending harmony with Staley, Cornell, and Arm's wildly contrasting vocal styles.
7	* BrokenBase:
8	** There's quite a bit of debate over the quality of the band's SelfTitledAlbum. Some like it for its drearier, druggier (if you can believe it!) tone, while others hate it for those very reasons. A few have also complained about its sound and production being slightly more mainstream.
9	** Fans are divided on whether William [=DuVall=] is any good as the lead vocalist or not, which is rather moot, seeing that Cantrell is usually the lead singer from ''Black Gives Way to Blue'' onwards, while [=DuVall=] is mostly relegated to that role for the Staley-era songs performed live.
10	** If you're on the side that doesn't like ''Devil Put Dinosaurs Here'', then you think the band took their surge of interest from the comeback and put out a follow-up that just went ''thud''.
11	** ''Rainier Fog''. A worthy modern Alice in Chains entry that does a far better job at recapturing the feel of the Layne era than the previous two, a good but unremarkable post-Layne release, or a boring trudge that sounds like any number of their copycats? Fans who didn't like ''The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here'' are more likely to enjoy it, while the other way around tends to happen to fans who did like the former album.
12	* CompleteMonster: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODTv9Lt5WYs I Stay Away]]": [[EnfantTerrible The boy with the jar of flies]] maliciously unleashes his pets on a traveling circus, causing chaos and destruction amidst the unassuming performers, including a lion tamer being mauled to death and a daredevil motorcyclist losing control of his bike and crashing violently. Snapping the trapeze artist's rope midair and turning the clowns violently on each other, the boy's machinations cause even the blindfolded knife thrower to accidentally kill his partner. Implied to be Death itself, the boy watches admirably over the entire circus burning down, while petting the jar for a job well done.
13	* CoveredUp: There are people who don't know "Them Bones" or "Angry Chair" but have heard versions of them in ''[[VideoGame/{{Doom}} Doom II: Hell on Earth]]''.
14	* EpicRiff: Many -- the talk box guitar opening of "Man in the Box", the main riff in "Rooster", the bass intro to "Would?", and the distorted guitar line in "Grind" are some of the best examples.
15	** The bass riff in "Angry Chair." Full stop.
16	** ''The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here'' gives us "Pretty Done", "Hollow" and "Phantom Limb".
17	** The LyricalColdOpen + guitar combo in "Them Bones" qualifies as well.
18	* EvenBetterSequel: ''Facelift'' is a great musical work in itself, but ''Dirt'' was one of the defining albums of the '90s along with Music/{{Nirvana}}'s ''Music/{{Nevermind\|Album}}'' and Music/{{Soundgarden}}'s ''Superunknown''. ''Dirt'' also solidified their sound as a sludgy, dark toned, mournful metal band, dropping all of their remaining glam elements.
19	* FanNickname: Fans usually refer to the self-titled album as ''Tripod'' because of the three-legged dog on the cover[[note]]Which was based on an actual dog with such a name that was used to terrorize Kinney (who designed the cover himself) in his childhood.[[/note]]. It has also been called ''Lucky'', based on an old joke.
20	* FandomRivalry: Alice in Chains fans are often at odds with Music/{{Nirvana}} and Music/{{Soundgarden}} fans.
21	* GatewaySeries: Alice in Chains was an intro to HeavyMetal for many older metalheads, and served as a gateway to many heavier bands and subgenres of metal.
22	* GenreTurningPoint: Along with Music/{{Nirvana}} and Music/PearlJam, Alice in Chains inspired the sound of many PostGrunge bands such as Music/{{Nickelback}}, Music/{{Godsmack}}, and Music/{{Staind}}, maybe moreso than any of their grunge contemporaries. In fact, they've inspired so many bands that their music may sound like generic post-grunge to the uninitiated.
23	* GrowingTheBeard:
24	** Most fans will agree that ''Dirt'' was when they truly found their voice. While ''Facelift'' is still loved by the fans, many complain that the second half of the album sounds too much like their hair metal roots.
25	** ''The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here'' is viewed as the band's second incarnation coming into their own. While ''Black Gives Way to Blue'' had a fairly divisive reception, ''Devil'' was better-received overall for having a tighter, more consistent sound.
26	* HarsherInHindsight:
27	** The last song Layne ever recorded with the band was "Died".
28	** Many of their songs qualify, but "Angry Chair" sums it up perfectly about Staley's life, especially with the lines, "Saw my reflection and cried. So little hope that I died."
29	** "We Die Young" becomes immensely disconcerting following Staley's death, especially as it unwittingly points to both how he died (drug overdose) and when (far too soon).
30	* TheLawOfFanJackassery: Ever since the band's decline from popularity in the mid '90s, the fanbase has fallen dead square at the peak, as most of it consists of the worst elements of both gatekeeping metalheads and {{grunge}} fans who [[DiscoDan refuse to change with the times]].
31	* MisaimedFandom: Staley ''hated'' it when people would say they [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint shot up to]] ''{{D\|ramaticallyMissingThePoint}}irt''.
32	* MisBlamed: William [=DuVall=] for ''Black Gives Way to Blue'', as Jerry Cantrell sings on much of the album, though some people who dislike it will acknowledge this fact.
33	* {{Narm}}: As "Right Turn" starts to conclude, Mark Arm from Music/{{Mudhoney}} monotonously drawls "We ain't riiiiiiiiiiiight".
34	* NightmareFuel:
35	** [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alice_In_Chains-Facelift.jpg The cover for]] ''Facelift'' can look quite unnerving to some.
36	** "Sickman". [[DespairEventHorizon "Though I walk through the valley... of rape... and despair..."]]
37	** "Rooster," though it's more {{t\|earJerker}}ragic than scary.
38	** "Angry Chair." The bass riff is the thing of nightmares.
39	** Despite ''Dirt'' being this alone, the self-titled album is much darker and extremely sludgy, consisting of one of the creepiest chords ever on most of the songs; it's easily the most disturbing album by the band. Think of ''Dirt'' as the disaster but this as the aftermath. One has to mention the bleak packaging of the album along with the nightmarish inserts, of which the cover's three-legged dog is just the beginning. The vintage-style images on the lyric sheets include mutated animals at a trial, medical sketches of a man and a woman with leg braces, some skull architecture, a deformed fairy, a pig with severed legs, a dying patient in bed, a sinister-looking bottle in the ocean with a face and arms, some type of creature with teeth and tentacles terrorizing a variety of little humanoids, and a donkey-headed skeletal figure. Not a cheerful product in the slightest.
40	*** Of all the nightmarish songs on the self-titled album, a special mention goes to "Nothin' Song", which is deeply unnerving both musically and lyrically, and is probably one of the clearest glimpses into just how thoroughly compromised Layne was by that point.
41	* ReplacementScrappy: Some fans tend to think this of William [=DuVall=], although to be fair, there probably wasn't ''anyone'' who would have met their satisfaction. Ironically, William tends to be a replacement lead singer almost exclusively for the older Layne Staley songs. For most of the newer material, he's typically only doing harmony and/or backup vocals.
42	* SignatureSong: "Man in the Box", "Them Bones", "Would?" and "No Excuses" for the Staley era, "Check My Brain", "Your Decision" and "Hollow" for the [=DuVall=] era. "Down in a Hole" is the signature ballad for both eras.
43	* SpiritualSuccessor:
44	** Jerry's solo albums ''Boggy Depot'' and ''Degradation Trip'' are considered to be continuations of the Layne Staley era, ''Degradation Trip'' specifically being one to ''Dirt''.
45	** "Private Hell" from ''Black Gives Way to Blue'' is generally considered to be this to ''Dirt''[='s=] "Down in a Hole". "Private Hell" in turn has its own spiritual successor in the form of "Choke" on ''The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here''.
46	* SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel: ''Jar of Flies'' is often noted for its incredibly dreamy music and production, especially songs like "Rotten Apple" and "No Excuses." Despite the otherwise characteristically [[LyricalDissonance depressing lyrics]], listening to the EP all the way through can be a downright relaxing experience.
47	* UglyCute: The weird lemur-dog thing in the "Angry Chair" video.
48	* TheWoobie: Oh God, Layne... A lot of the songs he wrote tell a story of a man falling into total despair due to a drug addiction he can't break free from and a girl who he wishes would stay with him, all reflective of his real life struggles with heroin and a fiancée who would succumb to heroin before he did.

Context YMMV / AliceInChains