Soundgarden

Soundgarden's final album from 1996 saw them taking production duties upon themselves. They rubbed off some of the polish that had been noticeably increasing on their previous material. Not ones to follow formula, the band integrate a variety of textures (from Moogs to mandolin), ending up with a record that balances heavy rock bombast with subtlety.

These are the best of times and the worst of times for Seattle rock. The A&R leeches and
press hounds are long gone; the scene is back to relative normality – that is, lively and
neighborly (even if some of the neighbors have platinum all over their walls). But the
survivors are hemmed in by the freak commercial expectations generated by 1992's
Summer of Sub Pop and the dead weight of a tired, distortion-driven rock aesthe... More >