Alongside their Seattle grunge brethren in Nirvana, the original Alice In Chains had one of the greatest impacts across one of the shortest timeframes in the history of rock. Formed in 1987 by guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell and drummer Sean Kinney, they would work with bassists Mike Starr and Mike Inez, and one-of-a-kind frontman Layne Staley on three EPs, three LPs and an iconic MTV Unplugged live album between 1990 and 1996, when Layne’s spiralling drug use ground activity to a halt. The vocalist’s death, from a heroin overdose in 2002, seemed to draw a line under an unprecedentedly innovative, unassailably brilliant catalogue. Eyebrows were understandably raised by 2005’s ‘reunion’ show for a south east Asia tsunami relief benefit, with stars like Maynar...
