Alice in Chains Video Bank

The videos from "Dirt" are also very good, especially Angry Chair where's f.ex. a burning chair. "Rooster" which tells about a war. "What the..." is a none album track, there's flames! Very hot, hot, hot!

"No Excuses", a video about acting. "I Stay Away" is an animated video, a sad circus video.

"Grind" is a video where's a old man. The same old man is also in "Get Born Again". "Heaven Beside You" is my fav video. There's a little girl and writings (lyrics), there's very cold in this music video! Very cold! "Again" is also quite good!

If you like good music videos or just Alice in Chains, I recommend this one for you!

There's also a discography! Cool!

Anyway, this the Video Bank which accompanies the Music Bank boxed set. While the Music Bank has 48 tracks - new, old, unreleased and rarities, this carries far fewer. All the videos the band ever made are on the disc; as well as a couple of behind the scenes things which show the band at play between shows and interviews and what-have-you.

Here in sunny South AFrica, we don't get this osrt of thing anymore. We barely got it back then, either; but there are officially zero radio stations which have a majority-rock playlist so for the most part the only good stuff we get is current chart rock. we get even less in terms of music videos, that's for sure, so I was obliged to rush out to buy this item as soon as it became available here a couple years after everywhere else (as usual - welcome to darkest Africa). It was bought sight unseen - the only Alice videos I'd ever seen before getting this were those for Grind and Again; and a clip of I'll stay away from the boxset's 4th disc. So I was in entirely virgin territory even though I have almost all the albums at home.

I have to say some of the stuff is a little cheesy - but in a good way. The first two videos are for We Die Young and they both are kinda psychedelic and 80s (in a bad way - sensory overload!!). But it picks up after that, with some magnificent material there for the taking, including all their big hits and the new track (well, new at the time) Get Born Again, which is creepy and disturbing and reminds me of the vdeo for The Unforgiven by Metallica. As I said, some of the videos are not great and a little boring and overdone - Rooster, for one, whose video I don't like even though the song is classic - but there are some gems in there as well. There is also a mini documentary form an old TV spot put together ny some executive with some foresight waaaaaaay back when Facelift broke in 1989 or thereabouts; as well as a few extras/behind the scenes items which focus on the band as not-Alice and just being old friends messing about backstage.

The disc could have benefitted from having an interview or two, I thought, perhaps hauling in a director from one of the videos and having a mini MTv-esque "Making the video" segment for one or two of the tracks. Unfortunately, you get the impression Columbia Records didn't want to have to pump any more cash into this than absolutely necessary, which is forgiveable in that there was an accompanying CD boxed set; but at the same time, it does come off as sort-of budget.

I rate the compilation as five stars; but in terms of content (ie bonus materials on a normal DVD movie) only 2 stars, since It's pretty much just chapter selection and that's it. Still, works well to plug it into your DVD player, leave the TV off and just play it as a greatest hits CD through the stereo speakers!