Dirt

Dirt is Alice in Chains' second studio album, released on September 29, 1992 through Columbia Records. Recorded that spring and summer across three studios (Eldorado in Burbank, London Bridge in Seattle, and One on One in Los Angeles), the sessions unfolded while the band evacuated briefly to Joshua Tree during the 1992 Los Angeles riots and while several members, especially vocalist Layne Staley, were deep in active heroin addiction.^[1]

Staley and guitarist Jerry Cantrell described the record as loosely conceptual, tracing a trajectory from casual drug use into consequence and despair, interwoven with songs about failing relationships and depression. Staley wrote two songs entirely on his own for the first time, "Hate to Feel" and "Angry Chair," while Cantrell contributed the bulk of the material, including the acoustic-leaning "Down in a Hole," written for his girlfriend at the time.^[1]

Critics received Dirt as a landmark of the grunge era. Rolling Stone later called it a contender for the bleakest multiplatinum album in rock history, and it has been described as one of the most harrowing concept albums ever recorded.^[2][3]

Commercially, Dirt peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 and spent over 100 weeks on the chart, eventually earning five-times platinum certification in the United States. It remains the band's most successful and most enduring studio album.^[1]