Artist: Jerry Cantrell
Album: Degradation Trip
Original release date: June 18, 2002 (1st version); Nov. 26, 2002 (2nd version)
Label: Roadrunner

Personnel:

• Jerry Cantrell - vocals, guitar, production
  
• Mike Bordin - drums
  
• Robert Trujillo - bass
• Jeff Tomei - production

Track list (1st version):

All songs by Jerry Cantrell.

1. "Psychotic Break" – 4:09
2. "Bargain Basement Howard Hughes" – 5:38
3. "Anger Rising" – 6:14
4. "Angel Eyes" – 4:44
5. "Solitude" – 4:00
6. "Mother's Spinning in Her Grave (Glass *** Jones)" – 3:53
7. "Hellbound" – 6:46
8. "Give It a Name" – 4:01
9. "Castaway" – 4:59
10. "She Was My Girl" – 3:59
11. "Chemical Tribe" – 6:35
12. "Spiderbite" – 6:38
13. "Locked On" – 5:37
14. "Gone" – 5:08

Track list (2nd version, aka "Volumes 1 & 2):

Disc one

1. "Psychotic Break" - 4:09
2. "Bargain Basement Howard Hughes" - 5:39
3. "Owned" - 5:18
4. "Angel Eyes" - 4:44
5. "Solitude" - 4:01
6. "Mother's Spinning in Her Grave (Glass *** Jones)" - 3:54
7. "Hellbound" - 6:46
8. "Spiderbite" - 6:38
9. "Pro False Idol" - 7:18
10. "Feel the Void" - 6:57
11. "Locked On" - 5:37
12. "Gone" - 5:08

Disc two

1. "Castaway" - 4:59
2. "Chemical Tribe" - 6:35
3. "What It Takes" - 4:44
4. "Dying Inside" - 6:26
5. "Siddhartha" - 6:02
6. "Hurts Don't It?" - 4:46
7. "She Was My Girl" - 3:59
8. "Pig Charmer" - 8:11
9. "Anger Rising" - 6:14
10. "S.O.S." - 5:07
11. "Give It a Name" - 4:02
12. "Thanks Anyway" - 5:26
13. "31/32" - 7:25
    
    

Singles:
"Anger Rising"
"Angel Eyes"

Billboard Top 200 peak: #33

 

This album was "Dedicated to Layne Staley," who died just months before its release.

 

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I AM RIFUGIUM: PRESIDENT OF EARTH.

...it's one of my fondest hopes & dreams that from all this new Alice attention, someone (label people) will get smart enough to pick this up & rerelease it PROPERLY next time.......it didn't get the attention & promotion & all of that (from the label), that it deserved the first time it came out......

 

If anyone has the EP that came first, which was offered thru the Cantrell site too, for a while....that hit the shows during 2001 & there was a plain cd before that came out (without any of the artwork).......this pure Jerry, he wrote it, he produced it, he lived it ~ Roadrunner changed a bit of it, but not a whole lot......

Maybe some day we'll get the 5 songs left off, too, cuz we're greedy that way....... 

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Check out WILLIAM'S OTHER BAND
CWTF music page: http://www.comeswiththefall.com/music.html
Newest music: http://www.myspace.com/comeswiththefall

Absolutely love the 2 disc version, the extra tracks really do make the package. Jerry Cantrell really puts all his heart, soul and emotion into this making it extremely deep and dark. I prefer this album to Boggy Depot by quite a way. Fave songs include "Siddhartha", "Solitude" "Bargain Basement Howard Hughes", "Pro False Idol" and "Locked On". His vocals are better on this too. This is about as close to the AIC sound as you can get without Layne. Ironically it sounds more like AIC than Boggy Depot despite that having 3 AIC member and this having 1. Just shows how big a part Jerry Cantrell is of AIC's sound...

Excellent album(s). The single disc cover sends shivers down my spine, so fucking haunting. I never knew that there were 5 extra songs, interesting.

Taken from Wikipedia, "Regarding the tour, Cantrell expressed enthusiasm toward Nickelback as well as annoyance toward Creed's indifference and lack of friendliness"

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Evacuate, assemble here

http://www.last.fm/user/BlackSession323

Feel the Void is one of the most depressing songs ever.  In the same vein as Frogs to me.  Love it.

The best collection of tunes spread across 2 discs, ever.

"31/32" is Cantrell at his best. No one can say so much with so little as he can. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that our Jerry is probably the most accomplished poet of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

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– Scared to death no reason why –

KILLER tunes by Jerry, yet again. I have to admit, I had a hard time getting into this one.It came out a couple of months after Layne died and I just don't think I was ready for Cantrell w/o Layne. As I later discovered, this is the closest thing to Alice EVER!!! This is Jerry exorcising his demons for all to hear. The liner notes to the double disc version say it best: "The shadow of Layne Staley looms large over Degredation Trip." These songs are not light and they are not easy to get into. Jerry was in a black place in those days. It HAD to be hard for him to make this record after losing the band he helped found and build. You can tell by the first listen. Bargain Basement Howard Hughes, this was Jerry speaking extremely candid about the relationship or lack thereof he had with Layne at the end. "Stubborn *** hard head knocking, we had our good years too." These lyrics are probably as close as those on the outside will ever get to knowing the real story. "Don't deny I did you cold I broke your trust and lied. Controlling selfish, gossip abound, cocaine mouth over mind." For Alice fans, this was very interesting, because Layne had gone silent, all we had was Jerry's side. if you don;t have this effort, pick it up, it is, in my opinion, the fourth Alice album, without Layne.

I CAUGHT A FLASH OF YOUR SMILE

THROUGH THE FOG OF A DREAM

I'LL HAVE A HELL OF A TIME I CLEARLY SEE

I CAN'T BE BY YOUR SIDE

I'LL SEE YOU WHEN I SLEEP

NOW YOU'RE GONE   GONE AWAY

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This is my favourite Jerry Cantrell solo album. I have the Volume 1&2 cd, and its so dark and full of hope and regrets and everything, its just so....arg, I can't find the words.
Really great album.

Did anyone else notice that Pig Charmer is sung quite like Layne Staley?!
Hmmm..maybe its just me, but I always thought the song is about Layne and therefore its sung how he would sing it..

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LittleSkinny

Degradation Trip is one of my all-time favorite albums. There is a great vision in it, Jerry Cantrell is a true artist. Dying Inside was the first song I ever listened from this. It totally hooked me, I loved Siddhartha too, and Spiderbite, really cool psycho interlude :)

Of all the AIC/associated albums this took me the longest to get into. Two full albums, and the slow, sludgy style never lets up. It's almost like over two hours of "Sludge Factory," although with a little more kick. However, over the past couple years I have started to think this album is actually genius. The pace never gets fast, but every song has this brutal, lurching-smashing feel to it, with great distortion. The notes tend to last a long time and overlap, fading in and out. Some of the songs sound somewhat similar to each other and to Alice in Chains songs (Died, for example, sounds like a lot of stuff on this album), but basically every song, once it gets going, is awesomely heavy. Pig Charmer is great. Spiderbite has been one of my favourite songs for a long time. Psychotic Break is also amazing. Closing each disc with a ballad is also awesome, a nice sort of reflection after all the sludgy slamming.

I am sure the new album will sound nothing like this, because Degradation Trip may be (despite the ballads and "Anger Rising," Jerry's best single) the least marketable work in the entire AIC/etc catalogue (even though it is some of the best). The last thing rock radio / the new generation of "rock" fans want, is insistent, deep, heavy music. I'm guessing the new album will be closest to the Self-Titled album in style - both to pick up where they left off, and because that style allowed them to write some catchy singles (Heaven Beside You, Again, Grind) while also jamming heavily (Sludge Factory, Frogs). I can't see them doing the energy of Facelift or even Dirt again - Jerry seems to have progressed in a consistently slower/sludgier direction (I don't think we've heard anything as fast as Them Bones from him since Them Bones).

PS Whoever said the new AIC Album should be called "Dark Country" and be heavy with folk/narrative elements is a genius.
 

PPS Is it just me, or is it possible to look at the cover of Volumes 1/2, ignoring Jerry's head, as a hand stretched toward the camera with the arm really far away? It looks like two images simultaneously to me almost. 

I've got all three versions of this (incl. the EP). It was a tough listen in spots at first, but I refused to give up on it. As it turns out, this is a masterpiece beyond the wildest dreams of most musicians. This is Jerry, un-watered down, uncut and pure. Incredibly heavy, emotional and passionate.

 

In other words, the best fucking album I've ever heard by anyone. Boggy Depot is in my top 5 albums of all time, but this is no. 1. Period.

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"Madonna is simply Courtney Love with an occasional bath"

I instantly loved this album. I still have four copies of it. One of them stayed in my stereo for a solid year. I have one for the car and one for the portable player and the fourth remains sealed. This ranks in my top 5 albums of all time, which is saying a lot because I love a lot of music. I still long to hear Pig Charmer live.

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"Copacetic, calm my frenetic, she's the shit y'all."

Wow, I feel like such an un-learned fan...I was never even aware of the double-disc release.  I picked this album up around the time it came out, and I absolutely loved it.  Also of coolness was that Mike Bordin and Rob Trujillo were on the album, because I am also a fan of Faith no More and Suicidal Tendencies.  This album really "got into my head" during those early days of its release.  I knew someone who had a spare ticket for a show in support of this album, and when asked if I wanted the ticket (on the sole condition that I drive to the show) I said "hell yes!"  I had an amazing time, ditched on the headlining act (which was nickelback), but it was worth it, because I got to meet Jerry!  I didn't really get to talk to him a lot but got to shake his hand at least, which was amazing for me and probably the highlight of my concert experiences.  Alice in Chains has always been a main band of mine since my early teens, and getting to meet Jerry and the other guys from his touring band was amazing. 

 The album also reflects the darkness Jerry may have been going through at that time.  Layne had just passed, Alice was more or less history at the time (other than to loyal fans), etc.  This is a very angry album but I just ate it up.  I love it. 

.....I just want to reiterate that Deg Trip was begun as far back as "just discussed" in 99, the bulk of it written in 2000 ( ~ which was after the 99 mini-blitz of AIC activity).....alot of pain from what was (or I should say wasn't) happening with AIC went into Deg Trip, but Layne was still alive when that was written....& some of the fans heard it & had part of it in their hands (pressed right from Jerrry's masters) over a year before it's roadrunner release......

.....and yeah, it is probably the closest anyone will come to hearing the depths of Jerry's soul at that particular time.......the good, bad & very ugly.......it is Jerry's inner glimpse of what it's like to be him......

I dearly love Spiderbite, it sounds better done live, yet he didn't do it live very often (unfortunately)......& when he'd start off (or close to the beginning) with Psychotic Break at the shows back then (2001, 2002) we knew we'd be in for a wild ride......

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Check out WILLIAM'S OTHER BAND
CWTF music page: http://www.comeswiththefall.com/music.html
Newest music: http://www.myspace.com/comeswiththefall