One of the most haunting records the band ever released, even more than the Tripod album, Alice in Chains's Jar of Flies EP is a record that signaled a dark turning point for the band. Coming off their tour for the Dirt album, the band had fired bassist Mike Starr due to drug use on tour that started to hamper his performance. Drug use that would unfortunately take his life in 2011 at just the age of 44. In Starr's place was former Ozzy Osbourne and Slash's Snakepit bassist Mike Inez. The big story around this period, however, related to legendary frontman Layne Staley. Ever since getting hooked on heroin during their 1992 tour with Van Halen, Staley's health took a nosedive as he was in the grips of addiction that kept getting worse due to his struggles with depression dealing with his new found fame. Something that would only truly become visible when the band did their 1996 MTV Unplugged concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where Staley was gaunt and firmly in the clutches of heroin use and was emotionally broken after the death of his fiancee, yet still put on the performance of his life. In some ways, Jar of Flies, not the eponymous album to come in 1995, serves almost as the last true Alice in Chains album with Staley, playing off what the band experimented with Sap, as the band would shift from it's hard edge, fist pumping, heavy metal rooted sound into a more doom laden affair with their last Staley era release. Despite all of the issues he had, Staley's songwriting and vocal chops are in full force, Cantrell's amazing on guitar whether it is acoustic or electric, Sean Kinney did great on the skins, and Inez fits in seamlessly. Arguably an all killer and no filler affair, despite being predominatly acoustic, tracks like No Excuses, Nutshell, Rotten Apple, I Stay Away, and Don't Follow are all timeless classics that in some form or another have been in the band's live set rotation both before and after Staley's death in 2002. Highly recommended.