Recorded at Seattle's Bad Animals Studio, the album's songs focus on heavy emotional content and subject matter such as drug addiction, depression, religion, broken relationships, and the internal tensions within the band fueled by Staley's substance abuse.

The album's music relies less on metallic riffs and more on melody and texturally varied arrangements, some integrating some of the more delicate acoustic moods of their EPs,[1] and others introducing late 1960s and early 1970s rock influences.

Alice in Chains was released in the twilight of the grunge era, and the band did not participate in any of their own touring for the album due to Staley's ongoing addiction.

After the release of Jar of Flies, vocalist Layne Staley entered rehab for heroin addiction, and drummer Sean Kinney struggled with alcoholism.

[5] Kinney refused to perform with Staley in his condition, and the band eventually decided to cancel all their scheduled dates one day before the start of the tour.

[5][6] Alice in Chains' manager Susan Silver was forced to release an official statement that all the group's live appearances for the foreseeable future had been cancelled due to health issues among the bandmembers.

The band would imitate the first verse of "Man in the Box", and frontman James Hetfield replaced the lyrics with "I can't tour", while his bandmates would pretend to give themselves injections.

[14] When Jerry Cantrell first began thinking about releasing a solo album in 1994, he tried jamming with several drummers, among them Josh Snyder of Tad and Norman Scott of Gruntruck.

[9] After Cantrell's home sessions, he reunited with Inez and headed to Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, Washington, bringing along Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson alongside producer Toby Wright.

Wright recalled that Cantrell was prepared for Kinney and Staley to turn the offer down, at which point he would pivot back to using the material for a solo album, despite his reluctance to do so.

However, despite the prospective profits in keeping both bands active, Sony executives ultimately decided it was not worth the risk and let Staley focus on Alice in Chains.

Although Wright emphasized that the idea of distancing from management belonged to the musicians,[17] he did not oppose because he wanted the band to leave all their problems out of the studio to focus on the music.

[5] In the absence of completed material, the band decided to simply jam together until finding something that would work instead of spending time on pre-production, as they had done on Jar of Flies.

By contrast, their previous studio album Dirt (1992) typically used six to eight guitar tracks, but Cantrell deliberately reduced their number to achieve a more natural sound.

[18] A notable exception was Staley's distorted voice on "Grind," which used a 1932 Turner Crystal microphone that Wright bought at a pawn shop for ten dollars.

Toby Wright compared Staley and Cantrell to the Lennon-McCartney duo and admitted that although he often criticized Alice in Chains' live performances, when it came to lyrics and melodies, he had nothing to complain about.

The question of stopping work on the album was raised numerous times, but Wright held on, sometimes organizing breaks of several days so that all of the participants in the project could rest and get emotional release from the situation.

Several instrumental compositions did not make the cut; these recordings were sent to Columbia, and Wright believes may still be in the label's possession, unused in Cantrell's future solo projects.

[10] The guitar sound on Alice in Chains was more natural than previous albums, with Cantrell using fewer tracks and effects; he significantly shortened and simplified his solos, more often improvising them in the studio instead of planning them out in advance.

Among those guitarists who influenced him during the creation of the album included Brian May, Lindsey Buckingham, Jimi Hendrix, Tony Iommi, Jimmy Page, Robin Trower, and David Gilmour.

For instance, he employed a pitch shifter alongside several layers of vocals on "Sludge Factory", and distortion on "Head Creeps" added a distinctive buzzing sound to his voice, reminiscent of a beehive.

[35] Although the lyricist at times displayed the band's conventional themes, occasionally even admitting his guilt, such as in "Shame in You", most often he was angry at those around him, blaming his friends, loved ones, and the media for his troubles.

On "Grind", Cantrell wrote that he wished "to hear the sound of a body breaking when I knock you down", while Staley denounces rumors spread by the media as "lackeys' loose talk for fact" on "Head Creeps".

[37] In "Brush Away", he wondered whether the band and their work was being taken seriously, or if they were considered a joke or fad,[37] while "God Am" asks a higher power why it was passively watching cruelty and heartlessness.

[33] The band's photographer, Rocky Schenck, did a casting for three-legged dogs for the album's cover art, including one in downtown Los Angeles on August 23, 1995.

[70] Titled the Alive/Worldwide Tour,[71] Alice in Chains' opening slot was originally held by Stone Temple Pilots, but their vocalist, Scott Weiland, had drug issues of his own to address.

[73] During this performance, Kinney stood from his drum set, and began to sing Kiss' "Beth", which in its original form had also been sung by the band's drummer, Peter Criss.

[79] DuVall had been in the audience at the Louisville show during their tour with Kiss nearly a decade prior,[73] and it took nearly 14 years for the band to follow up Alice in Chains with Black Gives Way to Blue in 2009.

[31][35] Rolling Stone described the album as a "musical rebirth",[31] and The New York Times remarked that in contrast to the raw distortions associated with grunge, Alice in Chains' sound was "cleanly delineated and meticulously layered.

"[35] Jon Wiederhorn of Rolling Stone called the album "liberating and enlightening", noting that the songs "achieve a startling, staggering and palpable impact.