ALICE IN CHAINS: Facelift Vinyl 2LP (Remastered)

Before grunge had a uniform, before it was a marketing category, there was Facelift, and it sounded like nothing else on the radio because it wasn't trying to be on the radio. Alice in Chains arrived fully formed in 1990 with a record that was too dark for the alt-rock crowd and too melodic to be dismissed as metal.

The Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell vocal interplay on tracks like We Die Young and Man in the Box remains genuinely unsettling in the best way. This isn't the polished, coffee-table version of grunge history. It's the one with teeth. The remaster gives the low end room to breathe without cleaning out what made it ugly and essential, which is exactly what it deserved. This belongs in any serious alternative collection.

Format: Vinyl 2LP, remastered. Artist origin: USA. Genre: Grunge, alternative metal, hard rock. Original release: 1990.

Fans of: Soundgarden, Black Sabbath, Mad Season

Format: Vinyl LP.