Soundgarden - Superunknown

Easily Soundgardens most well known album.

'Superunknown' is a radical departure from the previous Heavy Metal-era albums Soundgarden made earlier.  It is way more dark psychedelic and the lyrics are darker as well.  Still one can hear fore-shadowing of Soundgarden going in this new direction from their B-side 'Toy Box'

Although 'Superunknown' is a great album jam packed with good songs, I still would have liked them to make more 'Badmotorfinger' like Heavy Metal type albums!  Plus Chris CUT HIS HAIR!  Hard Harry412 misses his 'Jesus Christ' phase!!!

So how does the album itself stack up?  Well I have always thought the bass guitar sounds off, like it sounds real 'flat'.  This is not to take anything away from Ben Sheppard, it is just the way the production sounds that I dislike.  Come to think of it Kims guitar sounds kind of flat too, but not the same extreme that the bass does.

One really good point though is that Cornells voice shines through!  I didn't like how he sang so high on 'Louder Than Love' and his vocals were too low in the mix on 'Badmotorfinger' so the fact that he is in top form in a more likeable vocal style and is out front in the mix is friggin' radical!

My favorite songs on here are the rockers 'Let Me Drown' and 'The Day I Tried to Live'.  Cornells voice kicks all possible ass on 'The Day I Tried to Live'!!!

Also '4th of July' is an interesting experimental song.  It is like Soundgarden: Doom Metal version!  It would be cool to hear Soundgarden do this song, and then right after that have the Melvins do 'Hag Me', for a total, like, Doom Metal assault!  With 'Superunknown' Soundgarden showcase their musical range and should be given total credit for that!

Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger

Easily Hard Harry412 favorite Soundgarden album!

Back in the day when MTV actually showed music I tuned in to watch a live broadcast of a Guns N' Roses concert  circa 1991.  Little did I know that it would also show their opening act at the time: Soundgarden! 

Turns out I liked Soundgardens performance alot more then G N' Rs (I am not really into Sleaze Rock to be honest and much prefer Alternative Metal!).  I went out and immediately got a cassette of 'Badmotorfinger'.

After that anything Soundgarden / Chris Cornell became my 3rd favorite musical thing!

Badmotorfinger simply RULES!  It starts out with an amazing one-two punch:

'Rusty Cage':

This is one of my favorite songs all time!  Plus the video is sweet!  These guys are hanging out in the Northwest and rocking!


'Outshined':

THIS IS GRUNGE!  Totally bad ass video that appears to be made in hell of all places!

The other highlight of the album is 'New Damage' which sounds like Soundgarden paying homage to Black Sabbath.  They are playing all slow and stuff, but it is totally heavy!

This is the peak of Soundgardens 'Metal Phase'.  Chris Cornell even had long hair and looked akin to a 'Metal Jesus'!!!

This is just totally IT, right here!  Of the 'Big Four of Grunge' Soundgarden is my fave, and this is my fave album of theirs!  In my mind the heavy sonic assault of 'Badmotorfinger' blows 'Nevermind', 'Dirt' and 'Ten' out of the water!

The only issue I have with this album is that Chris Cornells vocals seem to be a little low in the mix.  But to be honest the guitars on this albums are SO HEAVY and loud that I think that no matter how one mixed it, it would always sort of 'wash over' Cornells vocals sadly.  (sadly because Cornell is one of my favorite singers!)

New Alice in Chains video! Hollow!

Alice in Chains has a sick new video out for their new single!

The song is great, it sounds like Alice in Chains trying to do a slow Ozzy-era Black Sabbath tune.  I like it when grunge bands do these kind of songs ('New Damage' by Soundgarden is in this vein) where they give a hat-tip to the original metal band Black Sabbath!!

The other thing I like about the video is its sci-fi theme!  Dude this music video combines so much stuff I like... grunge, Black Sabbath, and sci-fi...

My only concern with Alice in Chains coming out with this is that it might saturate the market with grunge now that Soundgarden is back too!  If memory serves the Rolling Stones and Beatles never released an album in the same year so that they would not over-saturate the market with British-Invasion rock.

Well it does look like Hollow is just a single and the rest of the album isn't due for a-while so perhaps my concern is pre-mature.  Yes Soundgarden and Alice in Chains are back and Generation X is going to rock on!! 

Soundgarden - Louder Than Love

This is the only Soundgarden album that I really dislike.  That is really saying something considering that I consider anything involving Chris Cornell to be like my 3rd favorite musical thing (w/ #1 being Leonard Cohen and #2 being Dinosaur Jr/ J Mascis solo)

What are the albums good points?  Well I like Kim Thayils guitar playing.  He really comes into his own on this one.  But sadly the drums and bass just don't sound that good and are in fact way to low in the mix too!  Also I just don't like the way the album sounds, period.  Just don't like it.  It is certainly not because I am some Soundgarden hater because I literally love ALL their other albums.

Chris Cornells vocals... Ugh, he is one of my favorite vocalists, but here he is just doing this high pitched shrieking all the time.  I like it more when he is doing like a more bluesy-soulful type of singing and using his deep register more.

Ya' know the really sad thing about this album is that I like the B-sides way more then the regular tracks too!  'Heretic', 'Come Together' and 'Fresh Deadly Roses' are all way better then at least half the regular tracks!  What the hell!  Really the only regular track on the album I really really like is 'Big Dumb Sex'.  What an awesome riff!

Soundgarden - Ultramega OK

This album is way under-appreciated.

Even Soundgarden themselves bag on it for some reason:

He later said that "we made a huge mistake with Ultramega OK, because we left our home surroundings and people we'd been involved with and used this producer that really did affect our album in a kind of negative way. The producer was suggested by SST because they could get a good deal. I regret it, because in terms of material, it should have been one of the best records we ever did. It actually slowed down our momentum a little bit because it didn't really sound like us."^[9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultramega_OK#Recording

There is very little reason for this negativity toward this record!  It is great grunge album and features some of Soundgardens best songs that I like best like 'Flower' and 'Beyond the Wheel'.  Also I really like Chris Cornells vocals on it!

The dang thing even earned a Grammy nomination!

The one thing I could agree sort of sucks about this album though is the track listing.  I would have done it totally differently.  In fact here is my suggested track listing for this album

1. Flower
2. All Your Lies
3. Incessant Mace
4. Nazi Driver
5. Beyond the Wheel
6. Head Injury
7. Smokestack Lightning

(Everything else with 'Circle of Power' last)

Metallica - Kill 'Em All

Guess what?  It is ok for alternative rockers to like Heavy Metal (like Metallica).  Soundgarden made it safe to do so:

Soundgarden made a place for heavy metal in alternative rock. Their fellow Seattle rockers Green River may have spearheaded the grunge sound, but they relied on noise rock in the vein of the Stooges. Similarly, Jane's Addiction were too fascinated with prog rock and performance art to appeal to a wide array of metal fans. Soundgarden, however, developed directly out of the grandiose blues-rock of Led Zeppelin and the sludgy, slow riffs of Black Sabbath. 

 http://www.allmusic.com/artist/soundgarden-mn0000001098

Something like 'Kill 'Em All' is especially tantalizing.  It has real indie label production values.  Hetfields and Hammetts twin guitar attack can churn out a sound that is listenable to noise rockers.

Also since J Mascis brought back guitar solos with Dinosaur Jr., it is A-OK to enjoy Hammetts solos!

Even Kurt Cobain liked Metallica!:

Is it true that the album cut "Whiplash" was Kurt Cobain's favorite Metallica song?
Absolutely. He told me that himself. He came to one of our shows in Seattle, on the Black Album tour. I remember at one point, we were playing "Whiplash," and he looked at me and kept punching the air with his fist, and gave me a big thumbs-up sign. I was like, "Cool. Kurt, I know you love this song. This one's for you!" I knew Kurt kind of well, and I hung out with him quite a bit. He was a pretty big Metallica fan – I was surprised at how much of a Metallica fan he was. He loved Ride the Lightning. He loved that album.

 http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/q-a-metallicas-kirk-hammett-on-horror-fans-hanging-with-kurt-cobain-20121001

'Kill 'Em All' is another album that is all killer/ no filler.  My favorite track is the first one 'Hit the lights', The beginning drum into and guirar intro just rule!

Soundgarden - Screaming Life/ Fopp

Soundgardens first two EPs!  Chris Cornell is probably my favorite vocalist.  (later Leonard Cohen might be as well though)  Cornell can just project like nobodies business.

Cornells vocals on these two EPs are the real diamond in the rough.  The rest of the band hadn't really developed fully as musicians yet (however they are still very good comparatively speaking)

'Fopp' is a real interesting song.  It is like no other song that Soundgarden has ever recorded before (to my knowledge, and I have most of their B-sides).  It is this fun pop party song.  It would be really strange if Soundgarden had decided to go 'the Fopp route' and become a band like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers instead!  Based on this track they probably could have pulled it off.

Ironically I think the best song of the bunch though is the B-side 'Toy Box'.  It has this real dark vibe and one can hear alot of fore-shadowing of the 'SuperUnknown' album which would be Soundgardens biggest album in a few years.