Alice in chains is better than nirvana

I just thought I should make this thread, Because I really see nothing special about nirvana. They aren't that good, And I think that Alice inchains is much better. The songs are better, And cantrell is much better than cobain, and staley is a better singer too. Also there are a lot more good songs from alice in chains, like "Sea of Sorrow" and "Junkhead". This is just my opinion.

I'm gonna have to disagree with you there. In terms of musical ability maybe AIC is better, but in terms of having good songs and not being boring, Nirvana beats them hands down. I like both bands, but I like listening to Nirvana a lot more.

I as well will disagree. Alice in Chains was a great band, and I think everyone will probably agree that the members were more talented than those of Nirvana. However, there is little variety in Alice in Chains. Facelift is a pretty boring album. Every song sounds very much the same. And Layne Staley moaning a long vowel sound for several minutes wears pretty thin after a while.

They're two of my very favourite bands, but I like Nirvana more.

Yep - same again. Alice in Chains were better musicians, but Nirvana had better songs and (like it or not) were largely responsible for one of the many shifts in popular music.

I will go ahead and say..... The following were better bands than Nirvana....

IMHO

Temple of the Dog (Come on!! Chris Cornell, Mike McCready on guitars, Eddie Vedder guest vocals...)
Pearl Jam (A LOT Better guitar work, similar yet more dynamic vocals, great lyrics)

The following are bands from that era that >>I<< like more than Nirvana.
Candlebox (eh... I have a thing for them... I don't know why. I know everyone will disagree with this one... But I like the song writing style they use.... But this is all opinion anyway. haha)
Silverchair... (Have a listen to "Frogstomp" that album is pretty killer. It's kind of a mix between Nirvana and Blind Melon...which leads me to...
Blind Melon... haha. (The lead singer was from a small town right outside Lafayette... so sue me.)

My personal favs are just some that I added in. It's hard to hold a candle to a mythical figure like Kurt Cobain is... because, I mean... Let's all face it... That's what he is... a Myth. He didn't write most of "Smells Like Teen Spirit"... They're ticket to legend status... He couldn't play the guitar better than anyone of us could when we were one year into learning... He was basically an urban poet with a guitar. Nirvana was a good band. Don't get me wrong. I just think that Cobains suicide has been massively exploited by their marketing company to cash in. It's very largely been successful... A lot of music media writers from that era have written that Pearl Jam was largely more popular amongst the "Grunge" scene than Nirvana...... right up until that legendary gun shot.

'Black' and 'Even Flow' from Pearl Jam's album 'Ten' are a couple of my favourite non-crazy-guitar tunes - agree entirely that there are a load of bands better than Nirvana....

Silverchair were cool, but i my opinion went downhill after frog stomp. The song 'tomorrow' has this classic lyric:

'the water out of the tap is..... very..... hard to drink'

I dunno what they were smoking, but I gotta get some :D

Originally Posted by: zreynoldsp
Silverchair were cool, but i my opinion went downhill after frog stomp. The song 'tomorrow' has this classic lyric:

'the water out of the tap is..... very..... hard to drink'

I dunno what they were smoking, but I gotta get some :D

haha!! Yeah... I like them a lot.

"You got me stooooooooned, sittin in my bedroom thinking"

I like a few of the songs from the Diorama album. "Without You" isn't too bad.

"You brighten my life like a polystyrene hat, but it melts in the sun like a life without love, and I've waited for you so I can't go on without you. without you"

I also like "Israel's Son" by them.

Some tracks to check out from Temple of the Dog if you haven't checked them out already... They only had one album... it was a side project collaboration between Vedder, Cornell, McCready and a few others...

Say Hello 2 Heaven
Call Me a Dog
Pushing Forward Back
Hunger Strike
Times of Trouble

Some Candlebox tunes all from their first album in '93:
Cover Me
You
Change
Far Behind
He Calls Home
No Sense

Far Behind was like the 4th song I ever learned. Not perfect mind you just well enough that you knew what song it was.

Originally Posted by: acapellabut in terms of having good songs and not being boring, Nirvana beats them hands down.

And I'd have to disagree with you there.


But this stuff is all entirely subjective

Alice in Chains for me is a better band than Nirvana.

I like more the sound of AIC cause it's totally different from other bands of the "Seattle" sound, darker and heavier, and of course in a better technicall place than nirvana.

Although I used to be a drummer, and I gotta say... playing nirvana songs on drums it's the more fun stuff I ever did, dynamics are so relaxed and groovier, that you can do it almost without thinking with you thecnicall part of your brain, you just let it flow. The point is I don't know if it's the same guitar wise (maybe it is), but I like more AIC (even when till now I just can't figure out the drums for "no excuses" wich it's brilliant).

In bases od enjoyment, Nirvana it's a great band, and sure a legacy but AIC went to that other part of the audience, who wanted more than three cord songs (wich are good, I'm not against them).

Gotta say I's a matter of taste and there is no right or wrong here, you just take wathever you liked from those bands and use it to get somewhere with your music.

Originally Posted by: polansky(even when till now I just can't figure out the drums for "no excuses" wich it's brilliant).

See, that's one of the things that makes AiC such a great band to me; Sean Kinney's drumming.

Most drummers are lucky to have one "signature beat" in their entire career.

Sean averages about three or four per album.

And it's not that they're all technically impossible (not even close), but they're inventive and tricky and interesting.

The only decent thing that came out of Nirvana was Dave Grohl. But, all in all, they're my least favorite band that came out of that period.

Originally Posted by: PRSplayaThe only decent thing that came out of Nirvana was Dave Grohl. But, all in all, they're my least favorite band that came out of that period.

That's probably the most perfect two sentences to come out of this thread... haha

Drummers... Dave Grohl is a great musician... Not overpowering behind a guitar... but he was the best guitarist in Nirvana... if that says anything... His drumming for Nirvana was more or less the background music to all the songs. Like was said... it's thoughtless beats that compliment the 3 chords that Cobain would sloppily play and whine over... It was never meant to stretch the boundaries of the sonic mix... AIC always had the type of drum tracks that you could listen to without even having the guitars, bass, or vocals in the mix.

Guitars... Jerry Cantrell versus Kurt Cobain... honestly... I mean... come on... Out of all fairness to Nirvana I will neglect any album that AIC has done with electric leads from Cantrell... and we'll simply compare the "Unplugged" sessions... oh.... wait... that wouldn't be fair either...

Vocals... Kurt Cobain had a unique way about him that could be appreciated. He had that "I'm going to mumble and I don't care if you can't understand me" mentallity... which embodied the grunge theme... Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrells vocals were more musically inspired and less "dying stray cat" inspired... "Rooster", "Angry Chair", "Wrong", "Excuses", "Heaven Beside You"... all unbelievably vocal tracks...

Alice in Chains... as my opinions state above... is a better band...

Along with plenty of other bands of that time period... Need not mention Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers..etc...etc...

The only albums I like really that came out of both of those band are their unplugged albums. I'm an acoustic freak though. If I had to choose imho Alice in Chains is a creatively and technically better than Nirvana. I do have an extreme distate for overuse of power chords though... and all the hype that surrounds Cobain's suicide. Annoys me, but its not his fault I suppose. Layne Staley did sort of have the mumbling mentality as well, but with Jerry Cantrell accompanying him it made it ten times more tolerable. I don't know much though, I'm just an indie freak that digs acoustic/unplugged albums.

Originally Posted by: PRSplayaThe only decent thing that came out of Nirvana was Dave Grohl. But, all in all, they're my least favorite band that came out of that period.

i love you...come here big guy.... ;)
nirvana irritated my ears to no end...

Originally Posted by: z0s0_jpi love you...come here big guy.... ;)
nirvana irritated my ears to no end...

Haven't we been through this before... I will NOT squeal like a pig! :rolleyes:

i'm sorry..that was intended to be a pic of nirvana irritating MY ear :D

Originally Posted by: RaskolnikovSee, that's one of the things that makes AiC such a great band to me; Sean Kinney's drumming.

Most drummers are lucky to have one "signature beat" in their entire career.

Sean averages about three or four per album.

And it's not that they're all technically impossible (not even close), but they're inventive and tricky and interesting.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, Sean Kinney is a really good drummer. One of my faves.

[QUOTE=aschleman]That's probably the most perfect two sentences to come out of this thread... haha

Drummers... Dave Grohl is a great musician... Not overpowering behind a guitar... but he was the best guitarist in Nirvana... if that says anything... His drumming for Nirvana was more or less the background music to all the songs. Like was said... it's thoughtless beats that compliment the 3 chords that Cobain would sloppily play and whine over... It was never meant to stretch the boundaries of the sonic mix... AIC always had the type of drum tracks that you could listen to without even having the guitars, bass, or vocals in the mix.

Guitars... Jerry Cantrell versus Kurt Cobain... honestly... I mean... come on... Out of all fairness to Nirvana I will neglect any album that AIC has done with electric leads from Cantrell... and we'll simply compare the "Unplugged" sessions... oh.... wait... that wouldn't be fair either...

Vocals... Kurt Cobain had a unique way about him that could be appreciated. He had that "I'm going to mumble and I don't care if you can't understand me" mentallity... which embodied the grunge theme... Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrells vocals were more musically inspired and less "dying stray cat" inspired... "Rooster", "Angry Chair", "Wrong", "Excuses", "Heaven Beside You"... all unbelievably vocal tracks...

I agree with pretty much everything you said there, but I still like Nirvana more. For me it all comes down to listenability (if that is indeed a word). Like I said before, Alice in Chains is one of my favourite bands, easily in my top 10, but they had a lot of songs that I simply cannot stand. Dirt is absolutely 100% amazing, and so is Jar of Flies. I have never heard Sap or the MTV Unplugged one, so I really can't speak for either. But I can only really listen to about half of Facelift, and it's the same with their self-titled 1993 album. A lot of those songs come across to me as filler. Intense, screeching filler.

A lot of this is due to Layne's voice. Yes, he was very good, but sometimes I think he was a little bit too Axl-esque. Wailing a note and holding it through 2 verses and a chorus is all well and good, but not in every damn song.

Kurt Cobain did kind of the same thing, but he wasn't as good a singer and his voice would crack halfway through. That to me is far more interesting to listen to.

And it's the same with the issue of guitars. Jerry Cantrell is obviously amazing, but this doesn't mean he was always interesting. I'd take a short and sweet atonal Cobain feedback solo over a 3-minute Cantrell solo that drags on and on. But that's just me. :)

As for Dave Grohl, same goes. He's a better player than Kurt, but I find him incredibly boring. The Foo Fighters are guilty of using that homogenized distortion tone which can be found in most of today's rock. It sounds like someone went over the soundwaves with a power sander and smoothed it down, getting rid of all the grit and growl that makes me like rock.



In conclusion, that's everything I can possibly think of to say on said matter.

Originally Posted by: earthman buck3-minute Cantrell solo

Oh, I see the problem...

You're from an alternate reality.

Originally Posted by: earthman buckA lot of this is due to Layne's voice. Yes, he was very good, but sometimes I think he was a little bit too Axl-esque.

...3-minute Cantrell solo

I could be wrong...but based on those statements, I'm willing to bet you've never heard Alice in Chains before.