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Guitar World named Dirt as the best guitar album of 1992. It was voted " Kerrang! Critic's Choice Album of the Year". Dirt was included in the 2005 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. 26 on its list of the 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time. Most of the music from the album was written by guitarist Jerry Cantrell, but for the first time vocalist Layne Staley wrote two songs by himself ("Hate to Feel" and "Angry Chair"), both also featuring Staley on guitar.
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The track "Iron Gland" features Tom Araya from Slayer on vocals. The songs on the album focused on depression, pain, anger, anti-social behavior, relationships, drug addiction (primarily heroin), war, death, and other emotionally charged topics. The music video for "Would?" was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Video from a Film, as the song was featured on the soundtrack to Cameron Crowe's 1992 film Singles. Dirt was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. The album spawned five singles: " Would?", " Them Bones", " Angry Chair", " Rooster", and " Down in a Hole", all with accompanying music videos. It was also the band's last album recorded with all four original members, as bassist Mike Starr was fired in January 1993 during the tour to support the album. It has since been certified four-times platinum by the RIAA and gone on to sell five million copies worldwide, making Dirt the band's highest selling album to date. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart, the album was also well received by music critics. Dirt is the second studio album by the American rock band Alice in Chains, released on September 29, 1992, through Columbia Records.
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