Published on Apr 12, 2006
Geniuses that they are, Roadrunner Records wouldn’t
let Jerry Cantrell, the former Alice in Chains guitarist, release
Degradation Trip as a double album, telling him there is no
market for double albums these days. So Cantrell took half the
songs and release a single CD on the condition he could release
this later the same year, with all the songs he wrote in the
running order he intended.
It really doesn’t matter which one you end up with.
While this may be the best work Cantrell’s done since Dirt
in 1992, it comes off as one long guitar dirge, full of power
chords, mournful vocals and winding epics not present in most rock
these days.
The record is an ode to Layne Staley, AIC’s singer,
who died right around the time this album was being written and
prepared for release. It is also a commentary by Cantrell about his
life — the loss of friends and family, the rock lifestyle and the
permeating sadness that seems to envelop his soul. This is not a
happy record, and now at twice the length it’s very difficult to
get through in one sitting.
It’s refreshing to hear that Cantrell hasn’t changed
with age — he wrote most of the best Alice in Chains songs and
made even the most melancholy power rock sound melodic. But a large
part of that charm was Staley’s primal heroin-addled howl, and
although he is a good singer Cantrell just can’t replicate that.
It’s hard to break out of the expectation that Staley will start
singing, since this music is exactly like Alice in Chains, only
without the occasional burst of humor and pop sensibility.
What it boils down to is this — if you like Alice in
Chains, you know what you are going to hear, and Cantrell doesn’t
disappoint. “Anger Rising” is a fiery burst of power that nearly
blows out my speakers every time I play it, and those creepy
“aaah”s mixed with the descending riffs make for a hell of a song.
“Gone” is a slower acoustic-tinged ballad that recalls “Heaven
Beside You,” and “What It Takes” uses what sounds like African
percussion and spare power chords to set the mood, letting
Cantrell’s voice and the bass do the work. It’s one of the few
times the mold breaks.
Only one of the 25 songs is under four minutes, and
several are longer than six minutes. Unfortunately, now that
Cantrell can indulge himself, he often does. Taken individually,
the longer epics are compelling, with several mini-parts and plenty
of anger and shredding to go around — but like Metallica’s St.
Anger record, repetition does not always equal good, especially
on a double album.
And many of the songs start off innocently enough but
return to familiar ground – heavy guitar dirges with the same tone,
Cantrell’s Staley-lite voice and basic drumming to augment the
melancholia. Again, individually, these are great songs — the Deep
Purple meets King Crimson overtones of “Hurts, Don’t It?,” the
sped-up near-punk “She Was My Girl,” and the acoustic/tambourine
undertone of “31/32.” And, as always, Cantrell’s lyrics are
soul-searching and far more meaningful than anything on rock radio
these days.
But in retrospect, Roadrunner was right to leave this
as a single disc. Even Alice in Chains fans may think this is a bit
too much of the same thing, and they’d be right. Cantrell can still
write a great riff and does a meaningful guitar dirge better than
anybody, but doing the same thing 25 times get a bit old.
Still, it’s worth a spin for hard rock fans, because
after all, this is Jerry Cantrell.