In the late 80s, Alice In Chains guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell accompanied Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil to a show in Seattle by Canadian punk-rockers D.O.A. and took the opportunity to quiz his fellow six-stringer about a few of his distinctive riffs. Cantrell had two specific tracks in mind. How, he wondered, had Thayil achieved the thunderous low-end riffs that powered early Soundgarden tracks Nothing To Say and Beyond The Wheel? “There’s this thing called drop D tuning,” Thayil told him, revealing the secret that gave his guitar parts their menacing growl. It was information that would change the course of Alice In Chains’ career.
“A short time later, they recorded a demo that contained many of the songs you hear on Facelift and they had a drop D tuning on them,” Thayil recounted in Mark Yarm’s excellent grunge oral history Everybody Loves Our Town. Before they were Alice In Chains, they were a more poppier, hair-metal-y entity who went under the name Alice N’ Chains, but now they had a sound to match the slight tweak in their moniker. “Their first demo owed a little more to Poison than the huge monster they became,” Thayil said. “That really changed when they heard us.”
But like all the greatest bands, Alice In Chains took inspiration from elsewhere and turned it into something entirely their own. Facelift, released 35 years ago this month, is one of the all-time grunge debut albums, a record that helped to reshape the sound of rock as the 80s turned into the 90s. Its meld of fiendish riffs, grinding, Sabbath-y grooves, soaring melodic hooks and powerhouse vocals made Cantrell, frontman Layne Staley, bassist Mike Starr and drummer Sean Kinney huge.
Producer Dave Jerden was a big part of the album’s success, encouraging the band to slow down their tempos to make Cantrell’s imposing riffs hit even harder. It became part of the album’s signature sound. Jerden, who also helmed Jane’s Addiction’s first two records (Ritual De Lo Habitual was released the same month as Facelift), immediately hit it off with Alice In Chains leader Cantrell.
“Jerry and I just saw eye to eye about everything,” he said. “He was in control of the band. I just spent all my time with Jerry up there.” The pair would go partying at Seattle hotspot the Vogue every night, go fishing in Puget Sound in the morning and then head to the studio.
