10 Legendary Albums That Will Make You Love Grunge

The biggest no no in the world of grunge rock was trying to live up to the same kind of hype as your usual rock stars. Part of the beauty of the genre working so well in the '90s was how it knocked the more manufactured acts that were coming off of the Sunset Strip off the charts, paving the way for a more organic approach to rock. They hadn't forgotten their roots though, and Soundgarden gave us an arty version of Led Zeppelin on their third outing.

Make no mistake, this isn't like a carbon copy of what Jimmy Page and co. did back in the '70s, with these songs being a lot heavier than what they had done back then. Coming from the world of art rock, a lot of these tracks almost seem to defy the traditional song structure that you think of for rock and roll, like the odd time signature going throughout Outshined and the different tunings going on in songs like Rusty Cage. The real sell here though has to be Chris Cornell's voice, being a modern update to the screamers of the '70s, knowing just when to bring things back and then exploding like a Marshall on 10.

Out of all the bands that reached legendary status in the grunge world, Soundgarden also never lost their ability to get weird most of the time, especially with the panning of guitars from Kim Thayil on Jesus Christ Pose and the almost Sabbath level of sludge on Slaves and Bulldozers. From day one, Soundgarden were far from being one note, and that was not going to change when they caught the ear of the masses.