Review by Rexorcist for Jerry Cantrell - Degradation Trip (2002)

I'm quite the Alice in Chains fan.  Way back when I was first getting into regular album exploration, one of my first ever binges was grunge, and that binge would be on and off for years before I felt I had exhausted all the albums worth listening to.  Of course, I kind of avoided solo Cantrell because I didn't want to explore a solo act just for a relation to Alice in Chains.  But the way I see it, a grunge junkie who actually started a wiki on it has an obligation, even if he's not working on the wiki anymore.

I heard the decent but unimpressive debut, Boggy Depot, before heading to this, and it's easy to see that Cantrell belongs in the metal world.  Right from the start, Cantrell makes a point of telling you that this is an Alice in Chains solo act by recounting that same dark and sludgy sound on the first track.  But the album doesn't stay that way; it goes from harder to softer on a beautiful balance, sometimes progressively.  Songs like Angel Eyes which bridge that poppy lightweight alternative with the noisiness of grunge riffs mingle well with softer and more acoustic bits with a slight emphasis on psychedelic country.  It made me realize that I wished there was a slight more alt-rock and psychedelic in Dirt, then it might've risen on my overall log.

However, there are a couple problems with this album.  First of all, the writing certainly isn't as unique or inspired as Alice in Chains.  It seems more predictable this time, despite all its efforts to both remind one of Alice in Chains and separate itself from the band.  The second problem is that the emotional aspect is not recounted much.  It's occasionally there, but it's lightweight.  This especially hurts if you know that Cantrell was with Alice in Chains, which means this overlong album is poppier.  So the variety eventually gets samey.

Well, I can't say this is my favorite grunge metal album.  I was hoping to love it for its connection to Alice in Chains, but I knew it was a bit much to ask for.  It's a pretty fun album with some cool songs, but totally passable.