After AIC's acclaimed powerhouse release that was Dirt, the band turns for yet another EP, driven by a whim for the accoustic settings and a need to explore a quiet angst of sorts. Without any less than a surprise, this intimate and honest conception breaches through to number one on the billboards, a first time event for an EP. And speaking of firsts, it was also the first AIC release featuring Mike Inez on bass.

Jar of Flies boasts on intricate melodies and string interaction, uncanny instrumental addendums to their style and sound, pieced in some of their finest production work. However described as their lightest effort, it is also their emotionally darkest album, by some.

Rotten Apple starts the album with Inez' promising prowess o bass, on a great hook to set the song for Jerry's crystal tone. A true flag for the soursweet nature of the entire record, it's brilliantly juxtaposed by the contrasting acrimony of Layne's vocals and a talkbox trailing the guitar work.

Nutshell follows through, in yet another accoustic piece for a beautifully atmospheric sense of dole. An apparently more straightforward track, though much, much richer in emotive darkness.

I Stay Away brings forth additional motion and sweeping string sections to the sound.

No Excuses, aside from the finest AIC percussive moment, is the ultimate hit, an easygoing, accessible song; but in the land of contrasts that is Jar of Flies, it also bears brooding, bittersweet lyrics.

Whale & Wasp, Jerry's instrumental track, featuring accoustic picking and good 'ol Cantrell effects on the electric guitar.

Don't Follow and Swing On This end the album with a western country feel to them, a Mark Twainish vibe, espcially on Don't Follow with the use of the harmonica.

All in all, a great piece of work, showing a versatile, complex and all together creative band that Alice in Chains can be, even outside it's deep metal rootings. A definite must have in your AIC collection.

This is AIC's first LP and for better or worse, it shows. Altough the production values hadn't yet reached the same level of its follow-ups, the band makes up for it with some of their hardest songs. In fact, the album kicks off with We Die Young, and follows through on a mind-crushing first half with Man In The Box, Sea of Sorrow and Bleed The Freak. Crunching guitar chords, powerful vocal deliverances and an electrifying hint of fretboard pyromania are telling us we're in for a tour de force metal album.

After this they seem to lose some focus and the stoner side of AIC (if there's any other) kicks in and are more than worthy of reference: Love, Hate, Love, a dark and disturbing epic piece of sorts, whose bone-chilling ambience is driven through Cantrell's moody, layered guitars and Layne's madness piercing through the mic; It Aint't Like That, another potential hit in the dawning grunge scene; Sunshine and Real Thing bringing us to the much overlooked funny bone in AIC, where the band's depicted mental illness takes a turn to the hilarious.

To sum it up, if you ask anyone about metal in the 90's you'll more than probably come across Facelift. For some, it is a sort of forgotten counterpart to Dirt, however, after a couple of spins it's more than capable of holding its own. 4 well deserved stars.