Three studio albums, two EPs, one live album, and a few European B-sides seemingly is a scant body of work to provide the basis for a box set, but that proves not to be the case with Music Bank, a three-disc retrospective of Alice in Chains' decade-long career.

In many ways, the very release of Music Bank and its single-disc distillation, Nothing Safe, is a roundabout admission that AIC is no longer an active proposition for any of its members.

But even if the group makes a comeback sometime in the next century, the two compilations are good snapshots of an era when Alice in Chains was one of the best bands in metal.

By its very nature, Music Bank is for the hardcore fan, since it spans three discs, but this is one box that gets it right.

It does feature all the hits, but they're surrounded by so many rarities -- including an abundance of demos, 12 previously unreleased cuts, live tracks, and alternate mixes and takes -- that it never seems like a hits compilation.

More impressively, Music Bank has a real narrative drive; it's easy to hear the band evolve, even if the set begins with the newly recorded "Get Born Again." True, the box set really isn't for casual fans -- they should stick with Nothing Safe or the band's masterpiece, Dirt -- but the dedicated will not be disappointed with this fine set, since it does deliver more rarities than expected.