10 Strongest Voices In Alternative Rock Music

With his rasping smokey voice, Chris Cornell was the face of Soundgarden, one of the key bands from Seattle that took the nineties by storm. They were the first band from the scene to sign with a major label prior to the release of their second album Louder Than Love (1989). Their early sound was a blend of metal and punk rock influences, that also had a classic Led Zeppelin kind of style.

It was their third album, Badmotorfinger (1991), that really put Soundgarden on the map, and all eyes were on the Seattle scene in a year which also saw the releases of Nirvana’s Nevermind and Pearl Jam’s Ten. Badmotorfinger developed their personal style, and Cornell had never sounded better than on tracks like Jesus Christ Pose and Rusty Cage. With the release of Superunknown (1994), Soundgarden’s popularity surged and they had a string of hit singles such as Black Hole Sun, Fell On Black Days and The Day I Tried To Live, which made the album their most commercially successful release.

Following a long hiatus with Soundgarden, Cornell would go on to release a number of solo albums, starting with Euphoria Morning (1999), which he would additionally record and release in French language. He would also create three highly acclaimed albums with his second band Audioslave, featuring the instrumental members of Rage Against The Machine, who launched with their classic self-titled debut (2002).