Soundgarden

Soundgarden's breakthrough record from 1994 was an inevitable mixture of the band's dense, heavy sound mixed with a vibrant production and some of their most concise songwriting. "Black Hole Sun" and "Fell On Black Days" became staples of alternative radio and even managed to break thru the formerly-etched-in-stone Classic Rock playlists.

Between Kim Thayil's Sabbath-style hypnoriffs and Chris Cornell's keening, Robert
Plant-like tenor, Soundgarden are generally written off by alternative fans as just a
smarter-than-average metal band. After all, how much was there to "Rusty Cage" or
"Outshined" beyond dark, sludgy and tricky Zeppélinesque time changes? Quite a bit,
actually. But it's been easy to miss the subtler aspects of Soundgarden in the din... More >

Having mocked this group's conceptual pretensions for years, I'd best point out that Chris Cornell still isn't Robert Plant, Kim Thayill still isn't Jimmy Page, and so forth, before cheerfully acknowledging that 1) they're all closer than they used to be and 2) it no longer matters. This is easily the best--the most galvanizing, kinetic, sensational, catchy--Zep rip in history. And though there may be a philosophical or interpersonal dimension, to me the trick sounds like it was done with songwriting, arrangement, and production. At 70 minutes, it's what used to be called a double album, not quite as long as Physical Graffiti but a lot more consistent. And though their apocalyptic pessimism is almost as content-free as Zep's apocalyptic mystagogy, Zep never reached out like Cornell in "My Wave": "Cry, if you want to cry/If it helps you see/If it clears your eyes/Hate, if you want to hate/If it keeps you safe/If it makes you brave." (Grade - A-)