Synopsis

Alice In Chains perform inside a vast, muddy pit beneath a blood-red sky while distorted images flicker across a puddle in front of them. Layne Staley sings amid visions of animals fighting, consuming one another, and a child emerging into the world. The stark setting and unsettling imagery mirror the song's fixation on mortality, isolation, birth, decay, and the certainty of death. Rapid camera movement, murky colors, and deliberately unnatural performances give the video a feverish, nightmarish atmosphere.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was released in 1992 alongside the band's album Dirt. "Them Bones" became the album's second single and reached No. 24 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart.

• The central dirt-hole set was built around the song's imagery of bones, burial, fossils, and returning to the earth. The puddle in front of the band functions as a disturbing miniature screen for the video's more surreal images.

• The video's unusual motion was created by having the band perform to a half-speed version of the song while the camera and crane moved at normal speed. When the footage was played back normally, the band appeared close to real time while the camera movement became unnaturally fast.

• The song's difficult rhythmic structure also shaped the production. Drummer Sean Kinney later recalled that the groove initially frustrated him because the track could have become a straightforward metal song.

• In September 2022, Alice In Chains shared previously unseen footage from the shoot for the 30th anniversary of Dirt. The material included outtakes, photographs, and Schenck's original concept sketches.

• The video was later shown on the animated television series Beavis and Butt-Head, in the 1993 episode "Sick."

• The clip was included on the band's Music Bank: The Videos home-video collection.