Chris Cornell: Ranking Every Album From Worst To Best

The ideal blend of craft and muscle, Badmotorfinger may not contain their biggest radio hits, but it's all-around better-crafted and sounds less desperate to fit into the grunge strictures that would envelop a large portion of Superunknown. This is an album of pure metal. And it's f--king brilliant.

Any album that kicks off with something as melodic and face-melting as the flawless "Rusty Cage" and transitions immediately into the ultra-powerful, riff-heavy dirge of "Outshined" is destined to be a classic. And although they certainly front-loaded the album - the epic "Slaves & Bulldozers" comes next, followed by the in-your-face "Jesus Christ Pose" - but that doesn't mean the rest of the album's a slouch. 

Badmotorfinger is full of jagged edges, jarring turns, complex detours, and trap doors, but by the time "New Damage" finishes its atonal spiral, you immediately want to go back and navigate it all over again. It's like the Boss Level of any good video game: It's arduous, but ultimately so entertaining that you don't mind having to go back and start over multiple times. 

It's a challenging album, for sure, but one that presents just enough on the surface to hook you in while promising fruitful rewards for repeated listens.

Badmotorfinger isn't just an album. It's a damn experience.