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Vocalist Layne Staley and guitarist Jerry Cantrell formed Alice In Chains
in early 1987, in Seattle Washington USA, along with associates Mike Starr
on bass and Sean Kinney on drums.
The Hard-Rock Grunge band soon attracted attention for their energetic
live shows and were picked up by Columbia Records in 1989.
The quartet released their first EP, "We Die Young", in June
1990, which was followed a couple of months later by their debut album,
"Facelift"; it broke into the The Billboard Top 200 chart spawning
two Mainstream Rock top 30 hits: "Man In The Box" and "Sea
Of Sorrow"; the band spent over a year on the road playing with Megadeth
in Europe and with Van Halen, Anthrax
and Iggy Pop in the United States.
Alice In Chains' second full-length disc, "Dirt", was issued
in fall 1992, it peaked at #6 in the U.S. Top 200 Albums chart selling
3 million copies, however, soon after finishing the record, Starr left
and was replaced by ex-Ozzy Osbourne
bass player Mike Inez; the first single off of the LP was the Active Rock
top 20 hit "Would?", followed by "Rooster", which
rose to #7 and "Down In A Hole" hit the #10 in the same chart,
the record also included two Modern Rock top 30 hits, "Hate To Feel"
and "Them Bones", plus one more Rock radio-single track, "Angry
Chair".
They charted again at #19 on The Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in 1993
with "What The Hell Have I", a single cut taken from "Last
Action Hero" movie soundtrack.
The group's next release was the 7-track EP "Jar Of Flies",
the set hit #4 in British Albums chart, shot to #1 on American Billboard
Top 200 chart and generated three excellent singles: "Don't Follow"
entered the top 30 of the Active Rock chart, "I Stay Away" reached
the top 10 and "No Excuses" topped that chart and also peaked
at #3 on The Modern Rock Tracks list; before 1994 was out another single,
"Got Me Wrong", released off of the soundtrack from the motion
picture "Clerks", peaked at #7 on Mainstream Rock chart.
Layne formed a super stars Grunge act named Mad Season with Pearl
Jam's Mike McCready and Barrett Martin from Screaming
Trees, the band earned platinum album for their debut "Above".
Alice In Chains, regrouped in 1995 and in November churned out the eponymous
album going straight to #1 on The Billboard Top 200, it included no less
than four Active Rock charting singles, including the #3 "Heaven
Beside You" and the top 10 hits "Grind", "Again"
and "Over Now".
The foursome, in April 1996, taped a performance at the Brooklyn Acadamy
of Arts for "MTV Unplugged", the set reached the #3 in U.S.
Top 200 Albums chart and entered the top 20 in Britain, it contained their
best singles plus a great new song: "The Killer Is Me".
Cantrell released his first solo album in spring 1998 and the following
year was released the collection "Nothing Safe: Best Of The Box",
which included "Get Born Again", this previously unreleased
track hit #4 on The Mainstream Rock chart; the three-CD box-set "Music
Bank" was released just three months later, the collection included
demos, live tracks, alternate mixes and 3 previously unreleased songs,
one of which, "Fear The Voices", eventually reached the #11
on Billboard's Active Rock list.
After various solo and side-projects a tragedy struck when Layne Staley
was found dead in his Seattle apartment on April 19, 2002, at the age
of 34, due to a lethal mix of cocaine and heroin; laboratory results determined
the singer died April 5, his body had been laying in his flat for nearly
two weeks.
Alice In Chains biography is an exclusive of 100xr.com
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