10 Grunge Songs That Are Insanely Heavy

With years in the rearview, it's still difficult to pin down Nirvana to just one genre. Though they may have birthed the term of grunge in the public eye, they have traces of metal, rock, and even pop sensibilities sprinkled into the mix if you listen to how Kurt Cobain writes his melodies. The pop appeal was what won over the masses, but the band was a lot more raw back in the days of Sub Pop.

Years before Smells Like Teen Spirit had been written, Negative Creep is pretty good indication of what Nirvana was trying to do, making some of the most abrasive sounds that they could while still holding onto their punk roots. Going through this entire song, the guitar lick may as well not even have any notes, as Kurt slides up and down the fretboard and practically strangles the life out of his instrument as the song plays out. Compared to the bright and shiny pop songs like Come As You Are, this is more indebted to the school of dissonant punk bands, where the goal is to just make a bunch of chaotic noise to capture what you're feeling.

For the uninitiated, this might not even sound like Nirvana in some places outside of Kurt's delivery, wearing their influence from the Melvins on their sleeves to create a controlled form of chaos. We did have Kurt's scream intact from the very beginning though, and a good scream goes a pretty long way in rock and roll.