I waffle quite a bit on my favorite Soundgarden album, usually depending on my mood or frame of mind at the time.  Some days I gotta go with 1989’s Louder Than Love, which was my first exposure to the band and a cassette(!) I played to death during the winter of that year as I trudged through snow covered streets as a door to door cable salesman.  That dark, grimy, and loose vibe showcased a band that started to lean a little more metal on top of their grungy drone; definitely more riff-centric guitar wise with unhinged rawk gawd vocal than before yet still unlike anything I’d ever heard.  It was a bit raw and certainly a bit more primal than what I’d usually listen to and definitely a much fresher take on some of those similar sonic elements.

But Badmotorfinger?  Damn…  talk about an entirely different beast.  More experimental, a bit more metallic, wildly dynamic, definitely more confident, certainly well produced, and arguably more “grown up” than previous records.  That looseness from the previous platter is relatively gone, replaced by more of a straight ahead pummeling of the senses in some areas and a denser groove in others with the occasional bits of frantic magnetism in various spots.  Terry Date’s production on Badmotorfinger, compared to his previous knob job on Louder Than Love, is top notch- guitars tones are thicker, bass sound is excellent, and drum sounds are solid.  As for the band as a whole?  They certainly brought their A game and ramped up their performances across all twelve songs on this nearly one hour disc.

Intro cut “Rusty Cage”s backwards clarion call of a riff is a stunner-  guitarists Kim Thayil and Chris Cornell bounce that riff back and forth before the rhythm section of drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Ben Shepherd drop the hammer double time as Cornell eases into a steady vocal roar, reaching peak heat during the chorus and dropping gears in the back half of the tune before kicking up a notch before the song comes to a close.  This, my friends, is how to start an album!  But boy do things get even better from here-  next up is the sludgy groove of “Outshined”, featuring a slinky Sabbath riff and killer chorus with Cornell fully stretching his range, a mix of leonine roars, soulful bits, and manic screams.  Did I say manic screams?  Not to be outdone, third cut (and incredibly underrated) “Slaves And Bulldozers” is lowdown yet features a wide open mountain moving riff-  the rhythm section is in a deep, deep pocket as the guitars chug at a safe yet noisy, almost bluesy groove and Cornell once again shows off his formidable pipes as he ably shifts from understated menace in the verses to a sort of manic tension in the pre-chorus then full blown rock hero mode come chorus time.

Possibly the most metallic moment of the disc comes with the chaotic crunch of next cut “Jesus Christ Pose”, a mix of manic feedback and wildly distorted soundscapes at the front end of the song with a heavy palm muted riff and short bursts of oddly striking single note runs and bends backed with some excellent drumwork from Matt Cameron.  While Cornell is great here he takes a bit of a backseat to the almost relentlessly restless playing from his bandmates, not only on this cut but on plenty of others on this disc.  There is a dynamic shift in approach between songs on this album and sometimes within songs themselves that works incredibly well for Badmotorfinger–  take other speedy numbers like “Face Pollution” and “Drawing Flies” where the music is at the forefront and pushing the element.  However, compare that to the brilliant simplicity of “Holy Water” or the psychedelic bluesiness of “Searching With My Good Eye Closed” or the menacingly dense “Room A Thousand Years Wide”-  all three cuts more in the pocket with occasional mid-song freakouts yet leaving plenty of space for Cornell’s masterful pipes to weave their magic.

While Soundgarden would go on to even greater success come their fourth album (the mighty Superunknown) , they would never quite get as experimental or oscillate as wildly as they would on Badmotorfinger.  Amazing to look back now at the massive shift happening at the time (Pearl Jam’s Ten, Nirvana’s Nevermind, Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Blood Sugar Sex Magic were all released within a month of each other and the latter three on the same day) as alternative and grunge were capturing the public’s attention and ushering in a new movement, yet none captured my attention (and still captures my attention) near as much as this album.  An incredible musical statement.