Dallas Green
Guitarist, Alexisonfire/Everything, City and Colour
Facelift Turns 30: Musicians Salute Alice in Chains’ Debut Album
Layne Staley with Alice in Chains during filming of one of their videos in Los Angeles, CA. August 1990 (Photo by Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage)
After I saw a video for “Them Bones,” that was it. Dirt was the first album I bought with my own money. And then, going back, I realized that “Man in the Box” song I loved so much was on Facelift, so I went and got that. It’s been a love affair ever since.
I loved how Facelift was darker than Dirt — and that’s a pretty dark record. There’s something really ominous about the way Facelift sounds. The opening chord progression to “Bleed the Freak,” or songs like “Sea of Sorrow”…I mean, even the “Man in the Box” video is super creepy and almost scary when you’re that young. I just loved how epic it was. You sort of always equate these records in your life to the moment you heard them and how they affected you. With Facelift, it was nice to go back and hear where it came from. I know that they were on the tail end of that ‘80s glam scene, and Facelift is them transitioning into that moodier [vibe]: “Let’s start singing about our heroin problems.” I was a child, and I felt like they were speaking to me, even though I know they were singing about this really dark affliction. Something about it just made sense to me, and still does.
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Mikael Åkerfeldt
Singer, Opeth
Screaming Trees at a club called the Ivy in San Francisco and opening was [Pearl Jam precursor] Mookie Blaylock, who my friend, Rob Cavestany from Death Angel, was like, “Oh my God, that was the best band I’ve ever seen.” And I was like, “They sucked.” I totally hated it because it was too happy. Alice in Chains came on and they were awesome.
Layne was a phenomenal singer, with incredible range, incredible emotion. Obviously, the harmonies between him and Cantrell were amazing. It was very melodic. It’s pretty much like a pop song, but the lyrical content and the nature of how it’s sung is just so dark. I have a connection with that for some reason.
[Producer] Dave Jerden did a great job with that record. The guitar tone…it was freakin’ savage for its time. It was so heavy, so dense, and so layered, and that was a big part of it. The music, it wasn’t metal, and we knew it wasn’t metal, but it just had that thick bass tone that was distorted and heavy and deep. Alice in Chains were, and continue to be, a massive, massive influence on Machine Head.
