10 Grunge Albums That Deserve More Love
6. Jerry Cantrell - Degradation Trip
DISCLAIMER: Not for the faint of heart. Should not be listened to by anyone suffering with any form of severe mental illness.
Now that that's out of the way, it wouldn't be anything of understatement to say that this is by far the darkest album in this list, and perhaps even the darkest album in grunge altogether. Coming at a time when grunge has long been dead, in an ode to both the genre and his best friend, this 2002 effort from Alice in Chains guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell documents his downward spiral after losing such a close companion in lead singer Layne Stanley.
Working with industry legends such as Mike Bordin and Robert Trujillo, the reclusive Cantrell managed to craft something that was dissimilar to any of the efforts released by his band, but still an undeniable masterpiece of internal suffering proven by the torturous lyrics and harsh guitar riffs.
Degradation Trip is exactly everything that it says on the cover, with the artist even undergoing a self-imposed isolation method to complete it.
Just to give an insight into how Cantrell was feeling at the time, there's no better way to perpetuate it than hearing it straight from the horse's mouth:
"I was just really f****d 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."