10 Best Grunge Albums You Need To Hear

With every band sounding completely different, it was hard to get down what grunge truly was in the early days of the genre. Each of the relevant bands had different influences and aspirations, but Soundgarden always stood out as the most musically competent out of them all.

Even though the band hit their stride on their later release Superunknown, Badmotorfinger is the band's greatest effort at making a distinctively "Seattle" sounding album. The riffs from Kim Thayil have an undeniable size to them that give each song a heavy feel. Thanks to the band's fantastic sense of rhythm, these tracks also go in some proggier directions like on the complex time signature of "Outshined" or the eccentric guitar tunings laced throughout songs like "Rusty Cage."

Aside from all the experimental sides of the band, Badmotorfinger never suffers for such artistry, as songs like "Jesus Christ Pose" boast catchy musical hooks that grab your ear right from the start. Of course, the star of the show is Chris Cornell, whose hard rock wail is cranked to 10 all over this record. With fans ranging from Guns N Roses to Johnny Cash, Badmotorfinger showed a band that was on the rise to become one of the heavyhitters of the rock genre.