Facelift is the debut studio album by Alice in Chains, released by Columbia Records on August 21, 1990. The tracks We Die Young, Man in the Box, Sea of Sorrow and Bleed the Freak were released as singles. Man In The Box was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal in 1992.
The album became the first album from the grunge movement to be certified gold on September 11, 1991. The album peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard 200 chart, and has been certified triple-platinum by the RIAA for shipments of three million copies in the United States.
Local promoter Randy Hauser became aware of Alice in Chains at a concert, and offered to pay for demo recordings. However, one day before the band was due to record at the Music Bank studio in Washington, police shut down the studio during the biggest marijuana raid in the state’s history.
The final demo dubbed The Treehouse Tapes found its way to managers Kelly Curtis and Susan Silver, who also managed the Seattle based Soundgarden.
Curtis and Silver passed the demo to Columbia Records‘ A&R representative Nick Terzo, who set up an appointment with label president Don Ienner. Based on The Treehouse Tapes (sold by the band at shows), Ienner signed Alice in Chains to Columbia in 1989.
Alice in Chains became a top priority for the label, who released the band’s first official recording in July 1990: the promotional EP We Die Young. Its lead single and title song became a hit on metal radio. After its success, the label rushed Alice in Chains‘ debut album into production with producer Dave Jerden.
Tracklist:
- We Die Young
- Man in the Box
- Sea of Sorrow
- Bleed the Freak
- I Can’t Remember
- Love, Hate, Love
- It Ain’t Like That
- Sunshine
- Put You Down
- Confusion
- I Know Somethin (Bout You)
- Real Thing
Alice in Chains
Layne Staley: lead vocals
Jerry Cantrell: guitar, backing vocals, talkbox on Man in the Box
Mike Starr: bass, backing vocals on Confusion
Sean Kinney: drums, percussion, additional backing vocals, piano on Sea of Sorrow
Additional personnel
Kevin Shuss: Additional backing vocals
Production and management
Produced, recorded, and mixed by Dave Jerden
Additional engineering by Ron Champagne
Assistant engineering by Leslie Ann Jones
Assistant mix engineering by Bob Lacivita
Mastered by Eddy Schreyer
Management: Kelly Curtis, Susan Silver
A&R: Nick Terzo
Product manager: Peter Fletcher
Layne Staley (August 22, 1967 – April 5, 2002)
Mike Starr (April 4, 1966 – March 8, 2011)
