Soundgarden

[Pedrito]

All them lads were big metal heads but of course punk/post punk was massive aswell and those along with a variety of cultural/musical influences led Grunge to spawn itself. Dave Grohl regularly harps on about metal bands. AIC, like Pantera, were a glam metal band, they toured together with King's X which was a hugely important band that sits right there in the middle of metal and the Soundgarden/AIC/Pearl Jam sound. You'll find pics of Jerry Cantrell with Dig Pinnick from King's X fairly handy. (A great, great listen is Lars interviewing Billy Corgan. It's on youtube. 2 absolute fanboys talking about their influences etc).

So Pantera had them lads (King's X) on one side and the likes of fellow Texans Watchtower on the other hand feeding into what they were doing, indeed Jason McMaster auditioned to join Pantera at one stage. That's what I enjoy about Americans and American music..the openness. While genres are important, you'll find people just listen to music because they like it and not because they're meant to. I could be way off on this but I always thought Grunge was to the US what Black metal was to Europe. It was like the natural next step for kids growing up on hair metal and Mercyful Fate to either turn it completely on its head and splash a lot of colourful paint on it, fuse it and take the best parts of it and add it to other stuff you've heard(Grunge) or use it as the template for a far more serious, deeper and more detailed invstigation, drawing on traditon to create something even far more profound (BM). My own personal way of looking at things..could be miles off.

[Eoin McLove]

Yeah,  well every genre is some sort of response to what came before.

[Pedrito]

When Corgan described seeing Metallica on the Ride the Lightning tour in this interview the hairs on the back of my literally stood up. A great listen


http://www.alternativenation.net/billy-corgan-bloody-metallica-show-scare/

[Pedrito]

Never knew about that Corgan/Mercyful Fate thing. Siamese Dream is the only album of theirs I'd listen to in full, Soma (Kev will be glad to hear) being one of my favourite rock songs of all time.

Anyway, Soundgarden, yeah, class. I must give Down On The Upside another go. I had it on CD way back in the day, but almost never put it on. Probably one of those things where it didn't click on first listen, and being young and obsessed with loads of other albums I was bingeing on, it just slipped into a region where I didn't know it and unthinkingly presumed that was because I didn't like it. Folly of youth? Let's find out!

Gish a heavier, more 'metal' album. I'd say you'd get far more out of it.

[pete]

Dave Grohl regularly harps on about metal bands.

Yeah, reminded me of his Probot album.

https://youtu.be/17bOAXnJIjg

[Eoin McLove]

Those Lars interviews were fantastic.
Probot was a great little project.

[Don Gately]

Probot was a great album.

I think Soundgardens best was Down on the Upside also. The first 6 or so songs are fantastic. I listened to Superunknown to death when it came out so a bit reluctant to revisit it. Saying that Fresh Tendrils is awesome.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Gish a heavier, more 'metal' album. I'd say you'd get far more out of it.

I might give it another go. I got absolutely sick of them over the period of a few years playing in a band with a drummer whose favourite band they were, sick of everything except Siamese Dream.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

I have it on now, and I realize literally know every single drum beat by heart, even on songs that for all intents and purposes otherwise sound like I'm hearing them for the first time 

[Kurt Cocaine]

Covers, take your pick....

https://loudwire.com/best-covers-soundgarden-songs/

[Pedrito]

Covers used be something interesting back 20+ years ago. Nowadays even the mention of a cover is enough to make me want to nuke stuff.

[jobrok1]

Winery Dogs doing Cochise with Tom Morello.
Kotzen sounds very like Cornell himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB5_TtbYpto


Or this one with Morello and Nuno Bettencourt's Soundcheck Band...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FEQBtzufVo

[Nazgûl]

You'd have to wonder was the vocal on Cochise an intentional nod to Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love'...

[Cosmic_Equilibrium]

All of the previous stuff is decent too, his vocals on Louder Than Love in particular are amazing. Avoid King Animal or whatever it's called like the plague, it's woeful. They really shouldn't have bothered with reforming, also judging from the live material they put out.

Yep, I saw them on tour in 2014 and wondered that too.

Sorry but I can't agree with this. I only managed to see them on their reunion but all three shows I caught were great, and the second one in particular (Brixton Academy) was absolutely fantastic, in my top 10 or 20 gigs easily. The Hyde Park show in 2014 when they just came out and played all of Superunknown was something special too.

Superunknown is an absolute masterpiece. 1994 was a vintage year for rock in general and that album is the best one of that year in a field with some very tough competition. It's genuinely on the same level as all time classics of old like Master of Reality, Meddle, etc.

[Ollkiller]

Aye I saw them after they reformed and they brilliant live.