10 Grunge Songs That Are Insanely Heavy
2. 4th of July - Soundgarden
Out of all the bands to come out of the first wave of grunge, Soundgarden felt like the superstars destined to hit the big time. Compared to the punk side of the spectrum, Chris Cornell's classic rock wails were made for rock radio, sounding like an art rock style update to what Robert Plant had given us years ago with Led Zeppelin. He may have been going for Zeppelin with his shout, but when Chris dipped into his lower register, we got into territory that Sabbath would have been proud of.
Even though Superunknown is by far the most radio friendly record in Soundgarden's discography, it feels weird including 4th of July in that mix, with some of the gnarliest guitar tones on any grunge record. While most grunge bands would mess around with a bit punk and metal here and there, we're past flirting with other genres here, with a riff that feels like it should have come off a droning metal record.
As the rest of the band play around the riff, Chris's gravelly delivery is a lot more sinister this time around, trying to go past the traditional sounds of metal and aiming for something that's a lot more tortured. Considering the dark turn that metal would take in the next few years, Soundgarden were ahead of the curve here, tuning their guitars down lower and reaching a certain heaviness that most nu metal bands would have killed to say they wrote. While Soundgarden definitely had a unique sound, they were also very eclectic. One minute you'd get a heavy edged version of the Beatles, and then you get this trip down to the underworld.