10 Grunge Albums You Need To Hear Before You Die

A lot of people forget how much Soundgarden was a late bloomer to the Seattle wave. Though they were always there since the beginning, it wasn't until after Kurt Cobain passed away that they first got their classic hit Black Hole Sun, only to have the rest of the genre crumble in around them to really enjoy it. If you want to hear the Soundgarden that Seattlites knew though, that would be one album prior on Badmotorfinger.

Across this entire record, this is what the sounds of Led Zeppelin would be like if they had been born and bred in the Pacific Northwest. While a lot of that comes down to Chris Cornell's amazing howl, the pure art rock tendencies of the rest of the band is what makes this a true grunge album, from the weird flirtations with shifting time signatures on Outshined to the bombastic chaos taking place during Jesus Christ Pose.

Compared to Louder Than Love from just one album prior, you'd swear that the band grew up by 10 in that time, with a sound that was as radio ready as any other potential hair band could hope to be. For as much as the early '90s was a state of transition for most artists, you still had Soundgarden making the greatest music imaginable at ground level.