“Layne Staley really was one of the most doom-laden, foreboding metal presences you could ever wish to see.“ Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield on the “pure molten lava“ of Alice In Chains' 1992 masterpiece Dirt

James Dean Bradfield, plus Dirt.

Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield once shared a personal theory underpinning his belief that there's been a dearth of truly classic metal albums since the early '90s.

“This is a bit of a shit muso point,“ he acknowledged while sharing his thoughts with The Quietus, “but I think a lot of that is down to modern day metal musicians tuning down. They do this drop, this detuning where everything is just ‘du-doom du-doom du-doom’... all the guitars are tuned too low.“