Soundgarden
The oldest of Seattle's big four grunge bands, Soundgarden brought a genuine debt to Black Sabbath-style heavy metal into a scene that was otherwise leaning more toward punk. Chris Cornell's voice made it work anyway.
- Formed
- Seattle, Washington, 1984
- Members
- Chris Cornell (vocals, guitar), Kim Thayil (guitar), Ben Shepherd (bass, from 1990), Matt Cameron (drums); early bassist Hiro Yamamoto
- Key albums
- Louder Than Love (1989), Badmotorfinger (1991), Superunknown (1994)
- Status
- Disbanded 1997, reunited 2010; Chris Cornell died in 2017
Soundgarden formed in 1984, years before "grunge" was a word anyone used, and were among the first bands Sub Pop signed. Where much of the scene drew on punk's speed and simplicity, Soundgarden's sound leaned on the slower, riff-heavy, drop-tuned side of hard rock, closer to Black Sabbath than to the Melvins, carried by Chris Cornell's powerful, wide-ranging voice.
1991's Badmotorfinger, released the same year as Nevermind and Ten, pushed the band toward wider recognition, but it was 1994's Superunknown that made them one of the biggest rock acts in the world: the album went to number one on the Billboard 200, and its singles "Black Hole Sun" and "Spoonman" became inescapable on rock radio and MTV. Drummer Matt Cameron, who'd joined in 1986, later also played with Pearl Jam.
The band broke up in 1997, citing internal tension, and its members scattered into other projects (Cornell went solo and later fronted Audioslave with members of Rage Against the Machine). Soundgarden reunited in 2010 and continued touring and recording new material. Chris Cornell died in May 2017, shortly after a concert in Detroit, effectively ending the band a second and final time.
#grunge.