This week marks the 30th anniversary of Jar Of Flies, a milestone release in the Alice In Chains catalogue. It was by no means a breakthrough for the grunge pioneers – their 1992 second record Dirt had already been a huge success – but it was the predominantly-acoustic Jar Of Flies that showed Layne Staley, Jerry Cantrell & co. they could expand their sonic horizons without doing it at the expense of commercial success. “We couldn’t believe that it did so well,” Cantrell told Guitar World. “That was when I knew we had really accomplished something… The success of Jar Of Flies showed us that we could do what we liked and other people would like it too.”
Jar Of Flies was not the first time that Alice In Chains had dabbled with a more stripped-down sound, but its creation did involve a number of other firsts. For starters, the sessions were initially booked to help bed in new bassist Mike Inez. Secondly, despite Cantrell beckoning producer Toby Wright down to Seattle’s London Bridge studios to helm the sessions, the band had zero material prepared. “We went into the studio with no songs written to check out the chemistry,” recalled drummer Sean Kinney. “It all fell into place.”
