Alice In Chains-The Essential-2CD-2006-RNS

ARTIST: Alice In Chains

TITLE: The Essential

LABEL: Columbia/Legacy

GENRE: Grunge

BITRATE: 221 kbps avg

PLAYTIME: 2h 09min total

RELEASE DATE: 2006-09-05

RIP DATE: 2006-08-25



Track List: CD #1/2

----------------------------

01. We Die Young 2:32

02. Man In The Box 4:46

03. Sea Of Sorrow 5:50

04. Love, Hate, Love 6:28

05. Am I Inside 5:09

06. Brother 4:28

07. Got Me Wrong 4:11

08. Right Turn 3:14

09. Rain When I Die 6:03

10. Them Bones 2:30

11. Angry Chair 4:49

12. Dam That River 3:10

13. Dirt 5:16

14. God Smack 3:50

15. Hate To Feel 5:16

16. Rooster 6:16



Track List: CD #2/2

----------------------------

01. No Excuses 4:16

02. I Stay Away 4:14

03. What The Hell Have I (Remix) 3:54

04. A Little Bitter (Remix) 3:48

05. Grind 4:46

06. Heaven Beside You 5:29

07. Again 4:05

08. Over Now (Unplugged Version) 5:57

09. Nutshell (Unplugged Version) 4:32

10. Get Born Again 5:24

11. Died 5:57

12. Would? 3:28



Release Notes:



The Essential Alice in Chains is the 2 disc compilation album by

Alice in Chains. It was originally to be released on March 30, 2004

but was delayed. It will now be released on September 5, 2006.



In many ways, Alice in Chains was the definitive heavy metal band

of the early '90s. Drawing equally from the heavy riffing of

post-Van Halen metal and the gloomy strains of post-punk, the band

developed a bleak, nihilistic sound that balanced grinding hard

rock with subtly textured acoustic numbers. They were hard enough

for metal fans, yet their dark subject matter and punky attack

placed them among the front ranks of the Seattle-based grunge

bands. While this dichotomy helped the group soar to multi-platinum

status with their second album, 1992's Dirt, it also divided them.

Guitarist Jerry Cantrell always leaned toward the mainstream, while

vocalist Layne Staley was fascinated with the seamy underground.

Such tension drove the band toward stardom in their early years,

but following Dirt, Alice in Chains suffered from near-crippling

internal tensions that kept the band off the road for the remainder

of the '90s and, consequently, the group never quite fulfilled

their potential.



Staley formed the initial incarnation of the band while in high

school in the mid-'80s, naming the group Alice N Chains. Staley met

Cantrell in 1987 at the Seattle rehearsal warehouse the Music Bank

and the two began working together, changing the group's name to

Alice in Chains. Cantrell's friends Mike Starr (bass) and Sean

Kinney (drums) rounded out the lineup,and the band began playing

local Seattle clubs. Columbia Records signed the group in 1989 and

the label quickly made the band a priority, targeting heavy metal

audiences. Early in 1990, the label released the We Die Young EP as

a promotional device and the song became a hit on metal radio,

setting the stage for the summer release of the group's debut,

Facelift. Alice in Chains supported the album by opening for Van

Halen, Poison, and Iggy Pop, and it became a hit, going gold by the

end of the year. As the band prepared their second album, they

released the largely acoustic EP Sap in 1991 to strong reviews.



Prior to the release of Alice in Chains' second album, Seattle

became a media sensation thanks to the surprise success of Nirvana.

As a result, Alice was now marketed as an alternative band, not as

a metal outfit, and the group landed a song, the menacing "Would?,"

on the Singles soundtrack during the summer of 1992. "Would?"

helped build anticipation for Dirt, the group's relentlessly bleak

second album that was released in the fall of 1992 to very good

reviews. Following its release, Starr left and was replaced by Mike

Inez. Dirt went platinum by the end of 1992, but its gloomy lyrics

launched many rumors that Staley was addicted to heroin. Alice in

Chains soldiered on in the face of such criticism, performing

successfully on the third Lollapalooza tour in 1993, which helped

Dirt reach sales of three million.



The band released the low-key EP Jar of Flies in early 1994. It

debuted at number one upon its release, becoming the first EP to

top the album charts. Despite the band's continued success, they

stayed off the road, which fueled speculation that Staley was mired

in heroin addiction. Later that year, Staley did give a few

concerts as part of the Gacy Bunch, a Seattle supergroup also

featuring Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, the Screaming Trees' Barrett

Martin, and John Saunders. The group subsequently renamed itself

Mad Season and released Above in early 1995. Later that year, Alice

in Chains re-emerged with an eponymous third album, which debuted

at number one on the American charts. Again, the band chose not to

tour, which launched yet another round of speculation that band was

suffering from various addictions and were on the verge of

disbanding. The group did give one concert -- their first in three

years -- in 1996, performing for an episode of MTV Unplugged, which

was released as an album that summer. Despite its success, the

album did nothing to dispel doubts about the group's future and

neither did Cantrell's solo album, Boggy Depot, in 1998.



Cantrell basically released Boggy Depot because he couldn't get

Staley to work, but its very existence -- and the presence of Inez

and Kinney on the record, not to mention Alice producer Toby Wright

-- seemed to confirm that the group was on moratorium at best,

defunct at worst. Staley, for his part, stayed quiet, conceding his

spot on Mad Season's second album to Screaming Trees singer Mark

Lanegan. In 1999, Sony put together a three-disc Alice in Chains

box set, Music Bank, divided between the group's best work and

assorted rarities. At the turn of the new millennium, Columbia

Records issued Live, which plucked material from bootlegs, demos,

and festival shows covering the years 1990, 1993, and 1996.



As if the group hadn't been repackaged as many times as possible

with its limited repertoire, a ten-track best-of set, Greatest

Hits, appeared in July 2001. With no sign of the group reclaiming

their spot atop the alt-metal heap (and such copycat acts as

Godsmack, Days of the New, Puddle of Mudd, and Creed taking the

Alice in Chains formula to the top of the charts), Cantrell

completed his sophomore solo effort, Degradation Trip, in 2002.

But just two months before the album's release, in April 2002, the

news that every Alice in Chains fan had been fearing for years had

finally come to pass: Layne Staley was found dead due to a lethal

overdose of cocaine and heroin. Although understandably

grief-stricken, Cantrell launched his solo album's supporting tour

according to schedule, opting to open shows in the summer for

another Alice in Chains-influenced band, Nickelback.



All tracks remastered. R.I.P. Layne Staley