We Die Young is a song and single EP by American rock band Alice in Chains, engineered and co-produced by Dave Jerden. Released in June 1990, it is the band's first studio EP. It was released in the US on cassette, but also on vinyl as a promotional single only and has thus become a sought-after collector's item amongst Alice in Chains fans.
Background Bill Adams of Ground Control Magazine, reviewing Alice in Chains's discography, wrote:
In the liner notes of 1999's Music Bank box set collection, guitarist Jerry Cantrell said of the title track: "I'd just temporarily moved in with Susan Silver because Sean [Kinney] and I had just had a fight. So I was riding the bus to rehearsal and I saw all these 9, 10, 11 year old kids with beepers dealing drugs. The sight of a 10 year old kid with a beeper and a cell phone dealing drugs equaled "We Die Young" to me."Liner notes, Music Bank box set. 1999.
Release A CD version of the EP exists as a single, however this only includes the title track and features artwork different from the vinyl/cassette version. The EP was a promotional only release issued before the band's first full-length album Facelift and has since gone out of print, with copies of the EP now fetching up to $100 dollars on trading sites such as eBay. The EP was re-released for Record Store Day 2022.
"We Die Young" and "It Ain't Like That" were released on the band's debut studio album, Facelift, later that year (1990). A demo version of "We Die Young" was released on Nothing Safe: Best of the Box (1999), the only song released on the compilation which was not available on Music Bank. The studio version was included on the band's 1999 box set, Music Bank, as well as on their 2006's compilation album, The Essential Alice in Chains. The version of the song "Killing Yourself" is exclusive to this EP; a faster-tempo demo version was later released on Music Bank.
"We Die Young" became a top five metal track at the time of its release. The music video was released in 1990 and was directed by Rocky Schenck, who would later direct the music videos for "Them Bones", "What the Hell Have I", and "Grind". The video features the band performing while various people drown in pools of blood. It was filmed in Glendale, California on the site of a house that was destroyed by the 1990 Glendale wildfires. The video is available on the home video releases Live Facelift and Music Bank: The Videos. An early music video for the song directed by The Art Institute of Seattle is also available on Music Bank: The Videos.
Reception Ned Raggett of AllMusic called the song "two and a half minutes of pure heavy metal rampage" and "a masterpiece of arrangement and production."
Bill Adams of Ground Control Magazine panned the title track in his review of the EP, writing, "the EP's title track opens the proceedings with a great big thud" and that "'Killing Yourself' opens with Staley howling like an ape before Cantrell does his best impression of Gilby Clarke for every note he plays during the song." Giving the EP an overall mixed review, he wrote, "Without overstating the point, it goes without saying that the We Die Young EP wasn't the single greatest start for Alice in Chains. Simply said, it sounded like everything else on the radio playlists of the day".
Track listing
Personnel Layne Staley – lead vocals Jerry Cantrell – guitar, backing vocals Mike Starr – bass Sean Kinney – drums
Charts + Weekly chart performance for "We Die Young" Chart (2022) Peakposition UK Physical Singles (OCC)11 UK Vinyl Singles (OCC)9
References
External links [ Review of "We Die Young"] at AllMusic