Dirt Redux: Alice In Chains’ grunge masterpiece gets the doom makeover it deserves

Doom all-stars pay tribute to Alice In Chains’ classic 1992 album on Dirt Redux

Reviews
By ( Metal Hammer ) published
Various: Dirt Redux
(Image credit: © Magnetic Eye)

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Following 2019’s complete remake of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Magnetic Eye Records have turned their attention to one of the ultimate grunge cornerstones. Dirt Redux hammers home Alice In Chains’ ability to satisfy both mainstream rock fans and slaves to the pulverising, Sabbathian dark. Reimagined and sometimes dismantled by all manner of stoner, doom, sludge and psych luminaries, the Seattle icons’ finest hour exerts its usual oppressive aura, but with major label sheen replaced with over-driven aberration. Highlights include Khemmis’s supremely epic Down In A Hole, -(16)-’s brilliantly venomous Hate To Feel and Low Flying Hawks’ woozy, drone demolition of Dam That River. Not everyone takes risks – High Priest’s Rain When I Die is eerily close to the original – but overall this is a classy, imaginative tribute that reveals new and greater depths in these devastating anthems.

Dom Lawson
Dom Lawson
Writer

Dom Lawson began his inauspicious career as a music journalist in 1999. He wrote for Kerrang! for seven years, before moving to Metal Hammer and Prog Magazine in 2007. His primary interests are heavy metal, progressive rock, coffee, snooker and despair. He is politically homeless and has an excellent beard.