Superunknown: Intoxicatingly Powerful

After my initial enlistment in the U.S. Army, I took some time off from active duty to serve in the National Guard.  I was leaving Fort Campbell, Kentucky for Lansing, Kansas and made a detour to cross off a bucket list item of visiting the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.  It was a great visit, but I couldn’t help but notice the absence of some very deserving acts.

At the beginning of this week, I read an announcement of the inductees for the Hall of Fame class of 2025 and was delighted to see that one of the most deserving acts that has been criminally absent is finally being inducted.  This particular act was one of the big four groups, and my personal favorite, of the Grunge Movement in Rock music from the late 80s into the mid-90s and consists of arguably the greatest vocalist of all time in Chris Cornell, backed by the ethereal lead guitar work of Kim Thayil, the solid bass playing of Ben Shepherd, and the peerless drumming of Matt Cameron.

It really brightened my Monday morning to see that the mighty Soundgarden will finally be taking their rightful place in the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame.  Seeing that made me think that the best blog post I could do for this week would be to write about one of my favorite albums of all-time, Soundgarden’s 1994 masterpiece, Superunknown.

Superunknown is seventy minutes of sheer awesomeness spread out over 15 tracks.  It has been said that if the Sex Pistols, with their disorganized rage-fueled bare bones style, were the heart of the British Punk Rock movement then The Clash, with their more refined approach with deeper lyrics and musical excellence, were the soul.  A similar comparison can be made with Nirvana and Soundgarden related to the Grunge Movement, and Superunknown is Soundgarden at their best with a sonic feast that leaves the listener breathless and can only accurately be summed up in a single word…“wow”.

Before I get further into this post talking about the album, I have to confess a bias.  I am a drummer, and Soundgarden’s Matt Cameron is one of my favorites due to his balance of power and finesse and driving style with its heavy use of tom-toms (often referred to simply as toms).  That having been said, the album begins with what is possibly the greatest opening track of any album.

“Let Me Drown” can be summed up in a single word, “power”, and it exudes this power from the moment it begins with driving guitars and thunderous percussion.  Every element of the song blends together seamlessly with an almost boundless energy.  The dynamic guitar, solid bass, powerful drums, and unparalleled vocals come together in a relentless barrage of butt kicking Rock music that leaves the listener needing a moment to recover and wanting to hear what else the band has in store for them.

In an awesome sonic one-two punch, the follow up track is “My Wave”, a successful single from the album.  This song generously gives listeners a few seconds to recover from its predecessor before diving into a sonic odyssey of driving music and excellent tonal shifts.  Matt Cameron’s characteristic tom-driven drums are on full display with the song’s intoxicating blend of melodic guitars, powerful drums, and vocals that tow the line between smooth and brash like a combination of Frank Sinatra and Lemmy Kilmister like only Chris Cornell could pull off.

Some people dismiss Soundgarden as being all about dark subject matter with a bleak outlook.  However, fans of Soundgarden, including me, will argue that while their music deals with bleak subject matter it included an undertone of “screw that” with an attitude suggesting a resolve to rise above and carry on.  “Fell On Black Days”, the third track on the Superunknown album, exemplifies this with smooth and upbeat music incorporating methodical pauses and peppered with crisp vocals occasionally punctuated with power.

The Superunknown album has some songs that are slower paced than others, but that are fascinating because they maintain a Heavy Metal feel while moving along at a subdued pace.  Three songs on the album that display this are “Mailman”, “Head Down”, and probably the most well known song on the album, “Black Hole Sun”.

“Mailman” features music written by Matt Cameron who also offers absolutely superb drumming that drives the song in a manner typically reserved for guitars.  With the drums driving the song, the guitars provide a fantastic driving rhythm part that makes it a classic.

“Head Down”, with music and lyrics from Ben Shepherd, has verse portions that provide an answer to the question of “What if Hank Williams wrote a Metal song?”  Ben Shepherd also provides an excellent bass line throughout the different verses that are joined by dynamic interludes that are the instrumental equivalent to Chris Cornell’s Sinatra/Kilmister vocals that I mentioned earlier.  There is also a great lyric that lends itself to my belief about Soundgarden’s “screw that” undertone in reaction to the bleak aspects of life when Cornell sings “Head high, you’ve got to smile”.  To me, this is encouraging people to face the proverbial slings and arrows of the world with their head held high so that they will face adversity with optimism.

“Black Hole Sun” is a very well known song, probably the most widely known Soundgarden song.  It maintains a Metal feel with a more subdued tone similar to “Mailman” and “Head Down”, but with a smoother and darker tone still with the ever present driving force present throughout the album.  It is also one of the few songs on the album that has a tempo that never wavers, instead with the vocals providing the major fluctuation to music that is at once intoxicating and powerful.  For another great rendition of the song, I recommend checking out Chris Cornell’s solo acoustic version.

The track “The Day I Tried to Live” is a song that I recommend to people who aren’t familiar with Soundgarden.  With its shifts in intensity, excellent musicianship from each member of the band, and it being very high on what I call the “whoa factor”, is a great introduction to Soundgarden.  I use the term “whoa factor” to describe a song that is so well put together and performed that those listening to it can’t help but be impressed to the point that either internally or externally they can only accurately describe the impact with a “whoa”.  The song is also unique in that there are no dramatic tempo shifts but the song is marked by shifts in its intensity, especially the vocals.

Besides “Let Me Drown”, I think that two of the strongest tracks on the album are the title track and another popular single from the album, “Spoonman”.  Chris Cornell wrote “Spoonman” about a street artist in Seattle known as Artis The Spoonman who is well known for playing the spoons.  The best way I can describe this song is “balls to the wall”, the term meaning to go all out and do something with full force.  Chris Cornell especially shows his amazing versatility as a vocalist while Matt Cameron’s powerful tom parts drive one of the greatest Hard Rock songs of all time.

The title track, “Superunknown”, features music written by Chris Cornell (who also wrote the lyrics) and lead guitarist Kim Thayil.  The song is marked by an awesome balance between Thayil’s lead guitar and Cameron’s drums.  Beyond that, words fail to describe the level of awesome on display in this song.  The vocal excellence and range of Chris Cornell, the fantastic guitar with the bass perfectly feeding off it, and Matt Cameron’s drumming excellence on display with power and finesse make this another classic on an album loaded with them.  I particularly enjoy a part of the song with a pause, a calm before the storm, immediately followed by a blisteringly amazing guitar solo.

The album concludes with the song “Like Suicide”, another smooth but driving tune with Cornell providing subdued vocals that give the impression of someone quietly bearing their soul.  The song turns up the intensity at the halfway point, and for the final 3 minutes of the song and album, listeners are treated to a punchy and more upbeat tune providing a terrific bookend to what is easily one of the greatest albums to come out in my lifetime.

Soundgarden’s album Superunknown is an awesome album filled with intoxicating music coupled with powerful lyrics delivered by one of the greatest singers of all time who only rivals Kurt Cobain for the title of “Voice of a Generation” for the Gen-X era.  Soundgarden is a great band largely due to their combination of power and finesse in their music coupled with a focus and complexity often absent from their peers.  Superunknown is one of my favorite albums, and hopefully that and the rest of Soundgarden’s body of work will receive renewed recognition and inspire the next generation of musicians and music fans with them finally being enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.