Customer Reviews

Music Bank

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This boxed set is amazing, first off 3 discs featuring the best of all 5 of Alice In Chains Albums (disc1 Facelift and Sap disc2 Dirt, Jar of Flies disc3 Alice In Chains), along with lots of unreleased demos before anyone heard of Alice (demos sound like Guns N' Roses). There are even three acoustic versions of songs (disc3 MTV Unplugged). These CDs are packed with 80 minutes of music each, so its well worth the price, all the hits like Would, Got Me Wrong and dozens more. Also the jams like Toad, and Bleed the Freak are in the set. Next if the fourth disc, a CD-ROM for your MAC or PC, includes full screen videos of Born Again, I Stay Away, Love Hate Love, Man In The Box, No Excuses, and 3 more. Also on the disc are five video interviews, and countless radio interviews answering questions of callers like why they are called Alice In Chains. Finally on the disc is an interactive game to save the Goat Doll. Its stupidly fun, and you navigate with your mouse through the game. Finally there is a very thick book that comes in the bank and goes through the band's history in photos and brief statements. ...

Don't get me wrong, I love Alice in Chains and most of their songs, but this box set is a bit expensive for who it's aimed for.

Now, some of the reviews here are by stupid people who think this was supposed to have all the original albums included in the box set, hence, it has "missing" songs. But this isn't an all-in-one album box set. This is actually a glorified "Best of Alice in Chains" box set that includes previously unreleased material.

What bothers me is that the diehard fan already has the vast majority of the songs. I'll admit their albums have some filler songs, especially Facelift, but they're all worth buying. If you need a chronological list: Facelift, Sap, Dirt, Jar of Flies, self-titled (Tripod) and Unplugged.

From around 50 tracks, only 16 of them were new to me, including the two "remixes" of their songs from the Last Action Hero soundtrack (I like the original A Litter Bitter better). I haven't heard the Best of the Box CD, but it doesn't have a live version of Rooster on it, but a cool demo of it. The fourth disc, a CD-ROM, has an interactive program on it that was released with some versions of Jar of Flies as well as a bizarre adventure game set to AiC music that's interesting at best, but I've only played it once or twice when I first bought the set.

New material:
Get Born Again
I Can't Have You Blues (demo)
Whatcha Gonna Do (demo)
Social Parasite (demo)
Queen of the Rodeo (live)
Bleed The Freak (demo)
Killing Yourself (demo)
Sea of Sorrow (demo)
Rooster (demo)
Fear The Voices
Junkhead (demo)
Lying Season (demo)
What The Hell Have I (remix)
A Little Bitter (remix)
Again (remix)
Died

Of the new material, I like Get Born Again and several of the demos the best. I could've lived without ever hearing half of these. The best (new) thing about the box set is the 3/8" thick booklet by singer/guitarist/songwriter Jerry Cantrell with some history of the band and commentary on most of the songs in the set.

Ultimately, I just let this set sit on a shelf without ever opening it again after the first few listens and preferred the original albums over it. A few years later, I've only recently opened it up again to put the songs exclusive to it on my iPod.

In short, Music Bank is the perfect collection of songs to display the talents of the most versatile band in modern rock. The four-CD set chronicles the best of AIC from the garage to MTV Unplugged, starting with some unreleased demos that would later lead to a record contract with Columbia Records. The demos are a bit lacking in recording quality, but the energy is still there. All the favorites are there too, like "Would?," "I Stay Away," "What the Hell Have I?," and two different versions of "Rooster." There are also new mixes and demos of previously released songs, like "Junkhead" and "Again," both of which add a new, pleasant flavor to those old favorites. The only brand-new track, "Died," is a heavy, riff-driven song that proves that Alice In Chains can still rock with the best of them. This boxed set is a must-buy for any Alice In Chains fanatic.

Don't get me wrong, this is 5-star material. But when you plunk down your hard-earned dollars on a box set, there had better be close to 100% of the band's material on it. I've listed the songs _not_ in the set at the bottom of my post. I really miss not having "Real Thing," "Sunshine," and the demo of "We Die Young."

The good news is that there is some great stuff you can't get on the regular discs, including demos, B-sides, remixes and a few live tracks. I can't believe how great as a whole all of that is!

The fourth disc is a CD-ROM, which I feel was a waste of space. It includes a few full-length videos, video clips, and a boring Myst-like game. I would've rather had this 4th disc used to complete the set, or as others suggested, used for other stuff available only on imports/singles.

Missing stuff from Facelift:
Sunshine
Put You Down
I Know Somethin'
Real Thing

AIC:
Brush Away
Sludge Factory
Shame In You
So Close
Nothin' Song

Unplugged: (10 songs missing)

Best of the Box:
We Die Young
Rooster (live)

I have been an Alice In Chains fan since I bought Facelift back in 1991. This boxed set is absolutely the best compilation of material ever put out by a band. Alice In Chains in my opinion is the best rock band ever! With previously unreleased demos and other tracks this is a must for any Alice fan. Thanks guys for allowing us all to share in your music. I hope that there will be more to come...

The Alice in Chains 4-disc box set Music Bank serves as both career retrospective and B-side collection. You get plenty of material from the regular AIC albums, but there is enough bonus material to make the set worthwhile to die-hard fans.

Here's what you get in this box set that you won't find on other AIC releases:

Disc 1 - "Get Born Again" (the only brand new song produced for this set), 3 early demos from the Alice N Chainz days, demo versions of "Bleed the Freak", "Killing Yourself", "Sea of Sorrow", and "Rooster", and a live track called "Queen of the Rodeo".

Disc 2 - There are only 3 exclusive tracks on this disc. "Fear the Voices" is an odd one, sounding like Alice in Chains meets the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It also features a demo version of "Junkhead" and a track called "Lying Season". Despite having just a few new tracks, disc 2 is the strongest in the set, since it contains the most material from Dirt and Jar of Flies.

Disc 3 - This disc rounds out the collection, and features material taken mostly from the band's final studio album. There are a few tracks from the Unplugged album, a few remixes, and the track "What the Hell Have I" which originally only appeared on the Last Action Hero: Music From The Original Motion Picture. The song "Died" is the only track that isn't available elsewhere.

Disc 4 - This is an interesting item. Music Bank was released before DVDs had completely taken over, so disc 4 is actually a CD-ROM with a couple of the band's videos and some additional multimedia content. It's a decent addition, but one that was made obsolete when the Alice in Chains - Music Bank - The Videos was released a couple of years later.

All told, this box set is likely to appeal only to die-hard Alice in Chains fans who want to own every available AIC release. It's a good collection, if a bit flawed. They could have just as easily added a disc or two and collected the band's entire catalog, or just released a single-CD rarities collection (which would have been a lot lighter on our wallets).

Exceptional. Simply brilliant. This is the only band (AIC) that makes me just stop and listen. I cannot multitask while listening to AIC, I am too captivated and engaged. This music bank is pure genious. You must hear it to truley appreciate the greatness that is grunge, the greatness that is AIC

We've all had a point in time where we remember a certain band a say to ourselves, "Hey, I need to get all their albums". Any fan of metal, punk, progressive, or southern rock has said that about Alice In Chains. Of course, who is going to spend their money on one band. Say no more, because the Music Bank is all you need. Music Bank features both "Dirt" and "Sap" in their entirety, most of "Facelift" and tracks off of Alice In Chains self titled and "Jar of Flies". But the best songs in the box set are the 1988 demos, songs like "Whatcha Gonna Do" and "I Cant Have You Blues" combine elements of 80's metal, Grunge, and Southern Blues. Music Box is a must have for the Alice In Chains fan who doesn't own any Alice In Chains material.

The early demos are not what I'd call the best stuff in the Alice In Chains catalog but its necessary to see how well the band evolved over the years. The inclusion of more unreleased tracks would have been nice. There is a demo version of "Would?" that was recorded in 1990 or maybe some LIVE tracks of the band in concert. And no "Hate to Feel"! The Jar of Flies CD-ROM was released 4 years ago and is still available separately but inclusion of "The Journey" more than makes up for this..

If you were p.o.ed about the cd-rom that was included with the box set and wished there was something more, then listen up. It hasn't been advertised (not even on Amazon), but they released a Music Bank: The Videos on VHS! And, if you're still hungry for more AiC, check out an auction website such as ebay and put the group's name in the keyword search. You'll find rarities such as "Bank Heist" which is ANOTHER greatest hits from this box set(it was given to select people) and if you're lucky-keep looking for "SUPER RARE DEMOS VOLUMN 1 & 2". The first disc has 18 songs that were unreleased demos that are NOT on this box set. The 2nd cd is more or less what is on the box set-but has such gems as a cover of Bowie's "Suffagette City" and a ton of "Dirt" demos! The sound quality is pretty good.