Unplugged

07/30/1996 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
John Kordosh

Metal dudes benefit more than anyone from the now-venerable (almost wearisome) unplugged concept, and Seattle thrash gods Alice In Chains are no exception. The main reason is that most of these guys--while trapped in a miserable music form that1s inherently annoying--are actually pretty good musicians. Thus, guitarist Jerry Cantrell comes out a big winner on this 71-minute(!) set, plucking his six-string with great elan on Alice mainstays like 3Would?,² 3Nutshell² and 3No Excuses.² (He1s also a pretty good backup singer.)

The real standouts on this disc are 3Rooster,² one of their earliest tunes, and 3Heaven Beside You,² one of their most recent. The two are conveniently placed in the middle of the set, only one so-so song apart, giving the time-conscious listener the option of skipping the rest of the CD entirely! Layne Staley, whose growls are not usually real inspiring, does a bang-up job on the ominous 3Rooster² (a favorite of Beavis & Butthead1s, too), and his take on the splendid 3Heaven Beside You² will be a treat for Alice fans everywhere.

There1s also the usual metal-guy shenanigans, like a brief spurt of Metallica1s 3Enter Sandman² at the intro to 3Sludge Factory,² and the rehabbed Staley saying later in the set 3I would have to say this is the best show we1ve done in three years (to which Cantrell replies, 3It1s the only one.² Yucks abound.) Unplugged is a record that probably won1t change anyone1s mind about Alice In Chains, but it1s a nice change of pace.