Alice In Chains are giving one of the most revered entries in the entire MTV Unplugged catalog a fresh pressing. The band has announced a 30th anniversary edition of their Unplugged album, with pre-orders now open and a tentative release date of September 25.
Fans have a few options to choose from. The group’s official webstore is carrying a “solar flare” colored variant alongside a standard black vinyl edition and CD, while a separate ruby red pressing is available through Revolver and Brooklyn Vegan. Details on the additional variants can be found in the announcement video. Notably, the reissue marks the first time the record has been pressed on vinyl in the U.S. in years.
The album captures a genuinely significant night. Recorded on April 10, 1996 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Majestic Theatre and released that July, Unplugged was the band’s first live performance in roughly two years — and it arrived under difficult circumstances. Alice In Chains had temporarily come apart in late 1994 as frontman Layne Staley struggled with addiction, and even after regrouping to record their 1995 self-titled album, they had been unable to tour behind it. The acoustic set became a rare public appearance for the group during that period.
The performance itself nearly buckled under bad luck, with guitarist Jerry Cantrell battling food poisoning as the cameras rolled, yet the band delivered a career-defining show. The setlist reframed staples like “Would?,” “Down In A Hole,” “Rooster,” “Nutshell” and “Angry Chair” in stripped-back form, and even featured the live debut of a new song, “Killer Is Me.”
In the decades since, the album has only grown in stature, eventually reaching 2x platinum status in 2022. It also stands as a poignant document of the Staley era; the singer died in 2002, and the band later returned in 2006 with vocalist William DuVall. Three decades on, that performance remains a benchmark for what the Unplugged format could achieve — and this new reissue puts it back in listeners’ hands on vinyl.
