Review by Booklist Review
The grunge band Alice in Chains came first even though Nirvana and Pearl Jam received the brunt of the media attention (Soundgarden is the fourth member in the grunge link). In this first biography of the band, journalist de Sola follows them from their humble origins in a warehouse in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood in late 1987 to their modern-day revival with William DuVall replacing founder Layne Staley as lead vocalist. In between, de Sola portrays each band member; we learn early on, for example, that as a teenager Staley hated school and began dabbling in drugs and alcohol. The band became known for their singular sound although categorized as grunge, they were really a metal band (Black Sabbath was a key influence) with blues and punk elements and equally singular, if dark, lyrics, ranging in subject from substance abuse to depression to suicide. A thoughtful and careful writer, de Sola doesn't sugarcoat the role that drugs, especially heroin, has played in the evolution of the band, with often tragic consequences (Staley died at the age of 34 in 2002 and the original bassist, Mike Starr, died in 2011). A must for Alice in Chains and grunge/metal fans.--Sawyers, June Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Biography of a drug-ridden Seattle grunge outfit whose fame peaked in the mid-1990s. In his nonfiction debut, Georgetown University graduate student de Sola brings a refined sensibility to the tale of Alice in Chains, a band that gained widespread notoriety but lost two of its original members to drug-related causes. The author aptly situates the band's sound, attitude, and lifestyle in the context of a particular time and place; his subjects were outcast working-class kids growing up bored in the Pacific Northwest, in love with punk and classic rock just as much as 1980s hair metal. Of course, the main focus is on the band's once-charismatic frontman-turned-heroin casualty, Layne Staley, whose distinctive, brooding style would come to be almost as widely recognized as Kurt Cobain's banshee wailing. De Sola approaches writing about the band with the sort of genteel orthodoxy one might apply to a master's thesis. To the author's credit, though, his staid writing purposefully avoids the usual overheated rock-speak, letting quotes from the band and those operating in their milieu do the necessary dirty work. De Sola also integrates countless interviews with the band members' surviving friends and family and just about anybody who was ever remotely associated with the band. Unfortunately, though, the book requires more aggressive content editing, as it drags readers along on too many detours detailing the dead-end side projects of the band members, not to mention their onstage (and backstage) high jinks. In the end, just like too many rock bands over the years, Alice in Chains couldn't transcend the pitfalls of drugs, money, and overnight fame. Along with other bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains helped destroy complacent glam metal, but they also left behind a trail of futility and wasted talent in their wake. Exhaustively researched but too discursive for its own good. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
