The genre was a rebellion against the casual sexism of Eighties metal, and the singers in these bands generally overcompensated by coming off as stoic or too absorbed in their own self-loathing to bother coming off a bit flirty.

It's worth noting that in the grunge era, it wasn't cool for male rockers to project sexuality. On 'Silvergun Superman,' a terrific deep cut from Purple, he merges the grunge voice with the Bowie voice, and ends up sounding quite seductive, like a devil in a three piece suit.

He's a Bowie super fan, and the closest he ever comes to sounding 'natural' is when he puts on a Bowie-like croon. The truth is, Weiland is glam to the core. As Weiland's career progressed, he became a lot more comfortable with his talent as a vocal chameleon – his most recent releases are a covers album featuring incredibly reverent versions of songs by Radiohead, Nirvana and David Bowie and a a Christmas album in which he channels his inner Bing Crosby. It's the first time we really get a sense of his character as a vocalist, or, weirdly, lack thereof. Weiland dropped the Eddie voice on STP's second album, Purple, and that's when things start to get interesting.

Alice in chains dirt album genius