Reviews list for Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies (1994)

I'm just gonna say it: Jar of Flies might just be one of the greatest EP's to ever be recorded. Coming from the heaviness that is Facelift and the melodic brooding of Dirt, it would have been alarming to see this group ditch the electric guitars almost entirely. But it produces some of the bands best work. Everybody raves about the sludge like elements on the two previous LPs (and for good reason), but what happens when you take those slow, brooding riffs and minor keys and replace all of the distortion with acoustic guitars? Well you get a song like "Nutshell", which is absolutely brilliant. "No Excuses" as well as "I Stay Away" are also quite good as well. It was almost expected after this album that this group would do an MTV Unplugged concert at some point. This is the equivalent to what Opeth fans must have experienced after Deliverance with Damnation. This is art of the highest degree, created by artists you would never expected to make it.