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47 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The heaviest (and best) Seattle album of '91., September 4, 2003
Before the team of Chris Cornell (vocals), Kim Thayil (lead guitar), Ben Shepard (bass), and Matt Cameron (drums) made their biggest commercial breakthrough in the classic Superunknown, they released perhaps one of the hardest, rawest, most metallic records out of Seattle. That album is Badmotorfinger, released in 1991. Badmotorfinger is perhaps Soundgarden at their prime--a tumultous, pummeling titan equal parts Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, with a psychedelic metal tinge. The punky tendencies of the band's earlier material are not present here, except in the two-minute long Face Pollution and Drawing Flies. Most of the songs are 4 minutes or longer, and the band shines in this epic style. Cornell shreds his voice with some of the most impressive wails this side of Robert Plant, Thayil unleashes some suprisingly technical riffs (Rusty Cage is just insane!), and the rhythm duo of Shepard and Cameron is fast, tight, and focused. Odd time signatures are employed to full effect (ex. Outshined, Jesus Christ Pose). I love how the band was experimenting with new ideas, such as horns. There is not a spot of filler anywhere on the album, at least not to my ear. Everything is excellent, though I'd have to single out the crushing epic Slaves And Bulldozers, the fast-riffing Drawing Flies, and the rolling thunder of Room A Thousand Years Wide as faves. This is Soundgarden unfiltered--people who love the band for Black Hole Sun probably won't immediately like this harder and less commercial Soundgarden. However, it is every bit the equal of the masterful Superunknown. As good as the other records of 1991 were--Ten, Nevermind, Blood Sugar Sex Magik--Badmotorfinger simply "outshines" them all. Highly reccommended.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Heavy album for the hardcore "grungers", August 10, 2002
This whole album is exceptional, but you have to really like heavy, grinding rock to appreciate it the whole way through. Soundgarden's breakthrough, "Badmotorfinger," is an hour's worth of some of the heaviest music to explode out of Seattle in the early 1990s. When it began, Soundgarden was hungry, musically brash and fluent at hardcore grunge riffs, speed metal and even fast punk. Like many of its Seattle contemporaries, Soundgarden had integrity, a shield that kept the crassness of the music industry biz at bay. The band stood above hype and overwrought marketing to create tunes like "Rusty Cage," "Outshined" and "Jesus Christ Pose," well-known and vintage Seattle rock from the early '90s. "Outshined" might outshine them all, a dark, chugging song that conveys singer Chris Cornell's bleak outlook of making it big. It's a big, loud, guitar-driven rock song with screaming vocals, but also contains soft vocals at certain interludes to give the song an unexpected melodic tone.
The comparison of Led Zeppelin + Black Sabbath = Soundgarden is pretty accurate. Cornell has a Robert Plant-like voice in terms of range and depth, but it's shaded darker and comes off as more brooding. As hard as these guys were on their early albums, the riffs were complex enough to stand out from the headbanging crowd, while Cornell added his own melodic muse to the mix, making for a very interesting band. This album is filled with epic grunge/metal songs built to last. The dirge riffs of "Slaves and Bulldozers" go on for seven minutes, while Cornell sings like a man possessed -- God only knows how he hits those high notes. Like Zeppelin, these guys weren't afraid to stretch out their songs. Future Soundgarden CDs would incorporate lighter, more melodic elements into the picture, but the monochromatic "Badmotorfinger" contains none of that. More typical here is repetative riffing, as heard on the awesome "Jesus Christ Pose," a railing tune against glittery, force-fed religion, similar in message to the much more tame "Wooden Jesus," another Cornell-penned tune heard on Temple of the Dog. Another huge tune from this CD, one sometimes heard on the radio if you're lucky, is "Searching with my Good Eye Closed," a mid-tempo rocker that blends heavy riffage and Cornell's smooth singing -- in this case distorted with a layer of sheen for a cool effect. He also screams wildly in the song.
As good as it was at drawn-out epics, Soundgarden could also be superstar punk rockers at the drop of a dime; listen to the raging "Face Pollution" and Who-like riffs on "Drawing Flies." The versatility of this band was demonstrated more noticeably on future records, but Soundgarden also does a pretty good job of varying its sound on this one, though casual listeners might disagree. Because of its musical versatility and talent, Soundgarden were a hard band to categorize. Cornell has a wide vocal range, Ben Shepherd played a throbbing base, Kim Thayil is a very diverse guitar player and Matt Cameron, now of Pearl Jam, is as good as rock drummers get. Everyone in this band played a bit of everything, and each contributed to the writing (like in Pearl Jam).
Appropriately, "Badmotorfinger" ends with two long, grungy songs that Soundgarden so thrived on during this era. Overall, it's easy to see why so many people were captivated with this band's music in the early '90s -- and why these sounds helped start a new trend in music. Hundreds of bands have tried to emulate certain elements of Soundgarden's sound in the studio, but it's hopeless because the nucleus of Chris, Kim, Ben and Matt was a one in a million shot. They were trendsetters who had ideas, a vision and integrity. Plus, they knew when to quit when the time was right, unlike so many other bands who keep playing only for money and continued fame.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Colossal sound and epic lyrics, April 25, 2000
This is Soundgarden at their peak -- it's Superunknown minus the pop sheen. Cornell's range is twisted to superhuman heights. Thayil, as usual, comes up with some awesome colors and riffs. Ben and Matt lock-in and ride a groove like a freight train.The album definitely has a particular "sound" to it that underscores every song: It is aggressive, heavy and raw, and yet it is also refined, complex and cerebral. Cornell's lyrics are never simply sung, but rather delivered like the gospel of hard rock. Jesus Christ Pose is perhaps the best single performance of the decade by a four-piece rock band. Searching With My Good Eye Closed sounds like a muscled up renovation of Into the Void. Johnny Cash covered Rusty Cage which is about all that needs to be said about that song. There are several other classics on the album. If you haven't heard this album, you can't fully appreciate Soundgarden's genius.
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