Degradation Trip is the second solo album by Alice in Chains guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell, released on June 18, 2002. It marks his difficult transition from Columbia Records to Roadrunner, and was dedicated to Alice in Chains lead singer Layne Staley, who died two months before the album's release. The title was taken from the song "Solitude", the fifth track from the album. Degradation Trip featured two singles and was well received by critics, faring better than Cantrell's solo debut and bearing stronger resemblance to his work in Alice in Chains. The tracks "Anger Rising" and "Angel Eyes" were released as singles. "Anger Rising" reached No. 10 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks and stayed on the chart for 18 weeks. The album has sold 100,000 copies in the U.S. as of December 2002. In April 2019, it was ranked No. 21 on Rolling Stone's "50 Greatest Grunge Albums" list. Degradation Trip was released on vinyl for the first time on January 20, 2017, with a limited edition of 1,500 copies on transparent green vinyl.
The album was the result of an intense writing process that resulted in 25 songs. Cantrell enlisted new bandmates (Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin and then-Ozzy Osbourne/Black Label Society bassist Robert Trujillo) to officially dissociate himself from the incapacitated Alice in Chains and, after being dropped from Columbia, faced a turbulent recording process funded entirely by himself. After a lack of label interest, Cantrell eventually acquired a deal with Roadrunner who requested that he condense the material to 14 tracks. On November 26, 2002, the full Degradation Trip sessions' songs were released in their entirety as Degradation Trip Volumes 1 & 2. Cantrell's backing band for the Degradation Trip tour was Comes with the Fall, featuring Alice in Chains' future co-lead vocalist, William DuVall.
Background Not long after the April 1998 release of Cantrell's solo debut, Boggy Depot, he began work on a sophomore record which he confidently projected for a mid-'99 release. The majority of this follow-up, later entitled Degradation Trip, was written in the seclusion of a house in the Cascade Mountains. In a state of self-imposed isolation, Cantrell recorded the demos using a four-track recorder and a Gibson Les Paul. In 2002, he detailed the experience of writing the album and its outcome: "In '98, I locked myself in my house, went out of my mind, and wrote 25 songs. I rarely bathed during that period of writing; I sent out for food; I didn't really venture out of my house in three or four months. It was a hell of an experience. The album is an overview of birth to now. . . Boggy Depot is like kindergarten compared to this. The massive sonic growth from Boggy Depot to Degradation Trip is comparable to the difference between our work in the Alice in Chains albums Facelift to Dirt, which was also a tremendous leap."
"I got into a writing session which lasted for three or four months where I just continued to spew and pour all of this shit out of the depths of myself from every level and aspect of my life. I dealt with a lot of issues that aren't easy for me to verbally get across. I think it's easier for me to do it in a musical venue. But it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I'm glad I did it and I'm glad I went through the experience, but it's certainly something I don't ever want to do again."
Amidst writing a surplus of material between fall 1998 and spring '99, Cantrell showed two of his new songs to Alice in Chains' lead singer Layne Staley, who had been living in seclusion for some time prior and had not worked with Cantrell in some time. Staley contributed to the songs which would become "Get Born Again", a single from Nothing Safe: Best of the Box, and the song "Died". Thus, rather than becoming Cantrell's solo work, this led to their recording by Alice in Chains in 1998, released the following year. They would later be recognized as the final material written by the band with Staley.
When asked about his thoughts on the album in a 2018 interview with Billboard magazine, Cantrell said: "I was just really fucked up back then to be honest with you, and you can totally hear it on that record. It was done right before I got sober, and it was also done right when I was dealing with the death of my band, and then the unhappy coincidence of Layne passing away right after I released that record. So it was not a good time in my life, and it totally comes across on that record. It does strike a chord with a lot of people. It's a record I don't listen to a lot anymore because of all those things I mentioned. And I sobered up a year after Layne passed. But it's a record that's important to me, and I'll see Robert and Mike every once in a while and they're like, "We should do some fucking shows, man. Some Degradation Trip shows." (laughs) I tell him we'll do it someday."
Recording and production By April 2000, Cantrell already had over 30 songs written, so he put aside his confinement and began to search for a band to begin the recording process of Degradation Trip. To continue developing his second solo album, Cantrell enlisted drummer Mike Bordin and bassist Robert Trujillo of Ozzy Osbourne (and later Metallica). The choice would deliberately refrain Cantrell from his Alice in Chains bandmates and therefore distinguish his solo career from his past. He originally booked studio time with Dave Jerden, who produced Alice in Chains' first two albums; however, Cantrell fired him after two days, claiming "It was just not working out personally... Mike and Robert had hooked up with me and we had been through rehearsals, and we got into the studio with Dave and it all blew up on us on the second day. It took us months to get regrouped again." Cantrell was unable to find a replacement for Jerden and decided to self-produce Degradation Trip with his friend Jeff Tomei. They waited another three months for Bordin and Trujillo to become available again, but Cantrell found himself losing Columbia Records' approval of the project. As soon as recording began, his contract with Sony, parent to Columbia, had ended, leaving him with staggering studio bills. He continued financing it on his own, even mortgaging his house to do so, and developed the album to its completion without label interference. Cantrell reflected in early 2002 on his time making a record without a label: "It was very strange for me, because my experience in this business has been with one band and one label. The last couple years I was not only on my own making a record of the magnitude that I committed myself to, but I was having to deal with being like a brand new artist going around to all these different labels and meeting with them and hearing the same things over and over: 'Yeah, we love it. We love you,' and then have nothing happen. It was a little disheartening after a while."
Trujillo noted the difficulty in re-recording Cantrell's "little hoodrat demos". He was asked to replicate the demo arrangements which were on cassette and, according to Trujillo, had nearly indistinguishable bass. It resulted that Trujillo, inspired by Pino Palladino, developed his own code for writing down bass compositions which he would continue using in the future. However, he remarked positively on his recording experience with Cantrell: "I was primarily just there to enhance the bass, but he taught me a lot about simplicity and using space and notes that really mean something to a song."
Finally, he was picked up by Roadrunner who insisted Cantrell narrow his solo work to 14 songs. He was told, however, that the remaining tracks would later be released in some form. Indeed, on November 26, 2002, a second version of the album – considered to be the "definitive" and originally intended version – was released. This limited edition double album includes 11 additional recordings that Roadrunner forced Cantrell to cut, in fear that a double album would have low commercial viability. As such, Cantrell has called the single-disc release the "Reader's Digest version" of Degradation Trip.Kaye, Don. "A Long, Strange Trip" Degradation Trip Volumes 1 & 2, liner notes (November 26, 2002)
Music and lyrics With its aggressive, metallic approach and dark tones, Degradation Trip more easily compares to Cantrell's previous work in Alice in Chains than that of his more experimental solo debut. A hallmark of Cantrell's style, many unorthodox rhythms and time signatures are exhibited throughout the album as well as heavy use of wah-wah guitar effect and choir-like vocal harmonies.
The album's grungy heaviness is balanced, however, by moody acoustic ballads such as the somber "Angel Eyes". Serene, twangy guitar riffs featured in the likes of "Gone" allude more to Cantrell's Southern roots.
Its lyrics, often haunting and confessional, range from cynical sarcasm to explicitly morbid portrayals. Cantrell vents on the demise of his band and other personal issues with depictions of drug abuse, troubled relationships, and the rocky, hedonistic lifestyle of a musician. The album's title refers to Cantrell's self-imposed isolation and appears in "Solitude", a brooding acoustic track. The lyrical impact of songs such as "Psychotic Break", which also describes Cantrell's seclusion and reflects on deceased friends and family, was only prophetically magnified upon the sudden death of Layne Staley in April 2002.
Packaging and title The album title comes from a line in the song "Solitude", the fifth track from Degradation Trip.
The album cover was unveiled on April 10, 2002. The artwork was designed by Pascal Brun, and the photographs were shot by Comenius Röthlisberger, both from Team Switzerland. The front cover features a green image of Cantrell's dismembered left arm lying on a green field with guitar strings wrapped around his fingers and attached to the inner side of his elbow, alluding to the movement of playing the guitar. Female body parts are featured on the booklet for each lyric, with the song title tattooed on the skin. The booklet also contains an image of Cantrell lying on the ground bare chested with his eyes and lips upside down, and a dismembered right hand with a 1/4" audio jack (such as that used for guitar cables) replacing the index finger. Pictures of Cantrell alongside Robert Trujillo and Mike Bordin complete the booklet. The back cover has a photo of Cantrell, Trujillo and Bordin in a field, and the dedicatory "This record is dedicated to Layne Staley" above the track listing.Liner notes. Degradation Trip. 2002.
Promotion and touring Two singles were released off the album, "Anger Rising" and "Angel Eyes". The former debuted in April 2002 and had a music video which gained the album substantial coverage on MTV2. The acoustic ballad "Angel Eyes" surfaced on radio in September. MTV2 also aired short segments of a primitively animated Cantrell discussing various aspects of his music and personal life. Prior to the release of Degradation Trip, "She Was My Girl" appeared on the soundtrack for the film Spider-Man (2002).
With his album still being shopped around to labels, Jerry Cantrell began a national club tour with a show in his new hometown, San Francisco, California, in January 2001. Supported by Comes with the Fall and Swarm, he recruited M.I.R.V. guitarist Bryan Kehoe to join himself, Bordin, and Trujillo on stage. The three bands performed together from March 13 to April 5, 2001.
In support of his new album, Cantrell embarked on a two-month North American solo tour beginning April 20, 2001. In early May, however, he had an accident while playing football after a concert at the Kentucky Derby, broke his left hand and had to undergo reconstructive surgery, which caused the tour to be postponed. Cantrell's first concert after the surgery was at the Key Club in West Hollywood on July 1, 2001.