I still bristle at the term \”grunge.\”
I don\’t know why. I know it\’s easier to talk about all these bands in terms of the large genre into which they (like it or not) reside, but I feel like it takes away from their distinctiveness.
Nirvana sounds nothing like Pearl Jam. And Soundgarden sounds nothing like either one of them. Where \”Nevermind\” is fast, aggressive, sarcastic and filled with catchy hooks, \”Ten\” is slower, more brooding, with more emotional weight (whether intended or achieved). \”Badmotorfinger,\” however, is loud and punishing, dripping with metal riffs and drowning in the bleak lyrical landscape of its existentially lost characters.
I know I\’m straying from the central point with this little diatribe, but I really want Soundgarden to have their due. They are a singular band with a singular sound, and while that sound evolved over a depressingly short stretch of creative output, essentially it was melodic and blistering metal.
Kim Thayil\’s guitars just buried you under mounds of drop D tuning while Chris Cornell\’s vocals screeched and soared and crooned and smoldered over a bluesy melody. Matt Cameron — one of my favorite rock drummers of all time, just for the record — is perfectly comfortable with a punk rock feel, as on \”Rusty Cage,\” as he is with a driving, syncopated 7/8 time signature as on \”Outshined.\”
This is contemplative metal music for the kids who weren\’t really into metal.
I was never a fan of Judas Priest. I had a brief affair with Iron Maiden and Motley Crue in middle school, but they weren\’t really speaking to the things I cared about.
Soundgarden, however, was telling stories of dark characters with dark urges, or just talking about normal people who were wrestling with life, love and their existence in an apparently uncaring universe — all the things a directionless college student cares about.
And on top of all that, it just ROCKED.
Soundgarden would go on to make more popular, more accessible albums, but \”Badmotorfinger,\” to me, is still their best.