Soundgarden
Badmotorfinger
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Soundgarden
Badmotorfinger
A&M, 1991
RiYL: Black Sabbath, Motorhead, early Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, Mudhoney, Metallica |
Badmotorfinger is the sound of thunder, of the furies, of thousands of marauders pillaging the hills. It is the sound of punk fury fused with crushing heaviness and mind-blowing psychedelic fantasy.
Soundgarden was a bastard child of punk and metal -- not fully accepted in either culture. On earlier albums, they tinkered with the formula with uneven results. The music industry tried to pigeonhole the band in the heavy metal category. But in 1991, Nirvana created a new distinction -- grunge. Soundgarden didn't completely fit in that camp either. But millions of suburban kids (myself included) were scouring the malls of America, looking for anything that could simulate Nevermind's power. Soundgarden had just released Badmotorfinger.
For kids bred on the overdriven antics of bands such as Guns N' Roses and Metallica, Soundgarden wasn't too much of a leap and provided an important transition from '80s metal to '90s alternative.
From heavy metal, Soundgarden borrowed the idea of unrelenting waves of distorted guitars pounding listeners. Singer Chris Cornell fused the high-pitched wail of many '70s American rock singers and the deep bluesy growl of English metal frontmen. But the band's tight, fast rhythm section was straight out of punk. Add to that the most important element in Badmotorfinger's success: psychedelia.
Sound effects and Cornell's often dippy lyrics gave Soundgarden a psychedelic pretense. Songs often centered around surrealist notions such as "I close my eyes and walk a thousand years / a thousand years that aren't mine," as Cornell sings on "Searching With My Good Eye Closed." But it was a new type of psychedelia, mixing heavy metal fantasy and meaty riffing with the decades-old psychedelic notions.
That mix, which is essentially the mix at the crux of grunge as well, is what makes Badmotorfinger so compelling. The album's opener, "Rusty Cage" takes a familiar punk notion -- escaping society's chains -- and adds a new weightiness to it. "Jesus Christ Pose" is essentially a punk dirge mocking fake martyrdom. But high-pitched guitar wails assault listeners to make the sound even more disjointed and urgent.
"Drawing Flies" and "Somewhere" bopped at a Ramones-like rate, but had a greater musical sophistication thanks to the metal influence. And slower, sludgy songs such as "Slaves And Bulldozers" and "Room A Thousand Years Wide" had more immediacy than traditional metal material.
Unfortunately, the band would all but abandon this path on later albums, instead opting for more user-friendly and pop-oriented arrangements. Soundgarden's skill as songwriters is mostly buried under layers of guitars on Badmotorfinger, surfacing occasionally on tracks such as the anthemic "Outshined" and "Mind Riot."
The success Badmotorfinger brought Soundgarden was only the tip of the iceberg. The band would gain more widespread popularity when they broadened their sound for a mass audience on subsequent albums. But upon retrospect, Badmotorfinger stands tall as the creative peak of one of the '90s greatest rock bands.
PATRICK KASTNER | Affectionately known as Cousin Patty (yes, it's a "Throw Momma From The Train" reference), Patrick Kastner is a designer for the Columbus Post-Dispatch.