"Man in a Box"

Alice in Chains
(Columbia, 1990)

The apotheosis of Seattle grunge's metal edge -- one pummeling chord that gets its comeuppance in a chorus halfway between Guns N' Roses (the band's original spelling was, after all, Alice n' Chains) and Ethel Merman -- and the song on which gnomish smack casualty Layne Staley first unveiled the quavery croak now quoted like Scripture by apostles from Creed to Godsmack. "Man in a Box" foreshadows AIC's later immersion in obtuse Baroque harmony and pharmaceutical metaphor but settles for good old-fashioned blasphemy and this one solid wail of evangelical anguish that's eluded more subsequent seekers than the holy grail.

-- Carly Carioli