Metal Showdown (Round 3) - Marilyn Manson vs Alice In Chains
 

Last round, Manson just barely squeezed a victory over Korn by one point. Now let's see how he will fare against one of the grunge giants of the early 90's.


These guys got overshadowed a lot by Nirvana and Pearl Jam at the time, but are still considered part of the Big 4 of grunge along with those bands and Soundgarden.

They're easily my favorite out of the big grunge bands because they also straddled the line between the grunge and metal a lot. Their first album, Facelift, carried a distinct hair metal sound throughout. Dirt, their next effort, is the release they are most known for, and is a damn fine record. There are a few stinkers on there, namely Sickman, Junkhead, and God Smack, but other than those three, it's a flawless album imo.

However, I feel they really upped their credibility with their move into more acoustic and emotional territory with the release of their Jar of Flies EP and their self-titled record the year after.

It's a shame that like Nirvana, the band never made it past their third album with their original vocalist, due to Layne Staley's severe addiction to heroin. They've release two more records with their new vocalist, William DuVall, but it just isn't the same. Great music, but DuVall's vocals can't match up to Staley's.


Let's see if the 90's king of shock can hold up to one of Grunge's greatest.




For me, personally, I have to go with Alice In Chains. They're just simply leagues of Manson in almost every aspect except maybe for the image and makeup. They may have had a declining passion for music the way Manson has if Layne had stuck around and still recorded with them, but as it is now, their small body of work outshines the whole of Manson's.

Why even compare the two?

Because Manson won the last round.

Both are pretty bad overall but Marilyn Manson's sole decent release was an LP and Alice in Chains' only decent release was an EP. So I'll give it to Marilyn Manson.

Really tough. I went with Manson and I will explain why. Alice In Chains although the superior talent in my eyes, were less historically significant. There were many other bands filling the grunge/metal/rock scene at that time as the OP points out. Manson was doing shock rock which had been done years earlier (Arthur Brown, Alice Cooper, and later KISS come to mind) but he was doing it at a time when music had become incredibly stale. Cobain was dead, probably the biggest band at the time was maybe Bush or Soundgarden. And while they are fine in their own right, they didn't have a fresh sound like Manson did. I remember the first time I heard his cover of Sweet Dreams. I was on the way to meet some people for dinner and heard it in the car. I absolutely loved it. Finally someone was doing something different in music, something offensive, something left of center. When I sat down to meet everyone I said, "I just heard this new band called Marilyn Manson on the radio, and they are going to be the next big band." People looked at me like I was crazy of course. Another thing you have to give Manson credit for is doing things his own way. Yes he had some horrendous records since Holy Wood, but there are some gems too. Eat Me Drink Me and the most recent Pale Emperor are both really good albums. They can't compare with Antichrist, Mechanical Animals, or Holy Wood, but they are worth noting.

As for Alice In Chains, Jar of Flies is one of my top 20 albums of all time. I really like Dirt and Facelift but this one is exceptional. His voice is so haunting, the lyrics are deep and meaningful. It's a masterpiece.

It was a difficult choice for me but I give the nod to Manson.

Alice .

Layne era WTF ?!?!!?

I'm hopping on this bandwagon. Alice in a landslide. Nevermind the obvious, Jar of Flies is epic ****.

Alice in chains, great musicians, and they came out of a more authentic underground scene.

I like Marilyn Manson to, but he's more like top 40 bubblegum metal.

Alice In Chains. I've never been able to get into Manson's work, but Alice during the years with Layne had some really great songs. I remember walking into the old Summit for the Clash of the Titans in 91, we didn't know there was going to be an opening act and got there a few minutes after their set had started and were like "who are these guys?" - a few months later they were all over MTV with Man in the Box.