Alice in Chains - Facelift

 A Must Have for Any Metal Rock Fan
Facelift was Alice in Chains first release and possibly their best and it was the album that took "grunge" to the mainstream. They were grouped with rocker friends Nirvana and Pearl Jam -- the other favorites of the Seattle scene. The single "Man in the Box" had a great groove to it with it's driving crunchy guitars and singer Layne Staley's interesting distinctive vocals. It probably is the song most recognized by people. Staley sings so clear that you can hear every painful lyric, unlike many alternative/metal songs.

Other great songs on the album are "Sea of Sorrow" having the same singable lyrics and great guitar notes along with "Bleed the Freak", because it's slightly different than the two previously mentioned. Their songs are moody, angry and emotional in a slight commercial way. A must have for any metal/rock fan. May 4, 2008

 Godfathers Of Grunge
I'll never forget listening to these guys on Mtv's Headbangers Ball, while Bruce Dickinson introduced the next video from an unknown band with a puzzled look on his face: "Alice In Chains, `We Die Young?'" And from then on I was hooked. AIC took me from a thrashing metalhead to a dirty, I-don't-give-a-f-ck attitude sort of kid, much different than the metalheads. Hard to explain.

But this album is raw and powerful, lyrically and musically. Yeah, you can hear a few songs on the radio over and over again (Man In A Box, Sea Of Sorrow), but they'll never play the real good ones. They never do! With lyrics like "I wanna peel the skin from your face. Before the real you lays to waste," do you blame them?

Every song on here (with the exception of Man In A Box, which the radio ruined by playing it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again!!) is a piece of time and history, from an angry youth; picture it like hippies with attitudes. That's what it was all about.

Alice In Chains set the stage for music for years to come, and snuck out the back door before the end of the show. Honored to have "known" them from the beginning. April 24, 2008

 AIC's Metallic Debut
Alice in Chains is an interesting band to listen to for several reasons. They have a very unique sound, even though they represented the Seattle grunge movement the band is very harmonious and haunting to listen to but also busts out its share of metal jams that split the amplifiers in half. Alice in Chains' debut is their finest metal record with pulsing guitars and hard drumming wrapped up with Layne Staley's soothing vocals the band provides an easily accessible yet complicated sound in the sense that it can not be pinned down into one genre. Alice in Chains used this as a liftoff point and this album is considered one of the finest of the grunge era. March 17, 2008

 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. December 3, 2007

 (2.5 stars) A slow starter for a great band
This is the most Sabbath-esque album in AIC history. Sludge, sludge, and more sludge. In fact, what we have here is a sea of sludge. This actually proves that AIC had it all worked out right from the start: heavy riffing; slurred, creepy harmonies; depressing lyrics; loud minor chords; a general somber feel. Not for the faint of heart, in other words. People who hate metal should stay far, far away from Facelift. And even those who like it aren't advised to dive right in immediately: Dirt is a whole ton better. This does show a lot of potential in spots: the breakthrough hit "Man in the Box" hits hard, a pummeling censorship protest; my favorite, "Sea of Sorrow", is a long, churning, neo-Sabbath guitar epic; "We Die Young" is just plain scary (the lyric "Take another hit, and bury your brother" is just as disturbing as the more famous "What's my drug of choice? Well, what have you got?"); "Bleed the Freak" rocks out with cool lyrics; "Sunshine" lets a screaming guitar solo loose; "Real Thing" has excellent tempo shifts. And then there's, uh, the rest. Too much of it simply doesn't leave a mark at all (I honestly can't remember "I Can't Remember"; "Put You Down"; "It Ain't Like That"), and then there are the three flat tracks. "Love, Hate, Love" and "Confusion" are all lead-balloon attempts to remake "Sea of Sorrow" - I'm sorry, but there can only be one! And "I Know Somethin' ('Bout You)" sounds like ZZ Top. I like ZZ Top, but that's not a sound that fits AIC. Thankfully, they were quick to get rid of anything resembling sleazy blues-rock. All told, Facelift is promising, but it doesn't really live up to the potential the first four tracks create, and comes nowhere near Dirt or Jar of Flies. November 22, 2007

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