Packed with hits like “Spoonman,” “Fell on Black Days” and “Black Hole Sun,” Superunknown made Soundgarden the reigning kings of grunge. Thirty years on, Kim Thayil recalls, “It didn’t budge the meter from everything sucking.”
BY JOE BOSSO
BIG THINGS WERE expected of Soundgarden back in 1989. The Seattle-based hard-rock quartet consisting of guitarist-singer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, bassist Hiro Yamamoto and drummer Matt Cameron were already being cited as pioneers of a new sound called grunge,” one that blended the aesthetics of heavy metal, punk and alternative rock. After releasing the EPs Screaming Life and Fopp on the Sub Pop label, and a debut album, Ultramega OK, on SST, the band had signed a major-label deal with A&M Records.
But commercial success didn’t come quickly or easily for Soundgarden. Their first album for A&M, 1989’s Louder Than Love, earned glowing reviews, and college radio stations jumped on hard-driving tracks like “Loud Love” and Hands All Over.” But the record stalled at number 108 on Billboard, and by the time the band released their next album, 1991’s Badmotorfinger, one of their fellow Seattle bands, Alice in Chains, had gone Platinum with Facelift. Meanwhile, two other groups from the area, Nirvana and Pearl Jam, dropped two albums — Nevermind and Ten, respectively — that exploded on the charts. The grunge revolution was now in full bloom, but Soundgarden were still awaiting their day in the sun.
It did make you go, ‘Hey, wait a minute!’ Thayil recalls. You think, We’ve been doing all this work, we’re touring Europe and the U.S. in vans, and then somebody else releases their first record and they’re in a bus and getting a nicer payday. You think that initially — these guys got signed and their record is Platinum — but then you think, Well, we opened doors for ourselves and our friends, but at the same time they also opened doors for us. We were getting attention, and our audience was growing slowly. There were other bands that never had that kind of success. I’m thinking of Mudhoney, Tad and the Screaming Trees — great critical acclaim and great press, but they never had the sales.
But Soundgarden’s day was coming, thanks to Badmotorfinger. With new bassist Ben Shepherd added to the band’s ambitious songwriting team, Soundgarden’s unique blend of walloping riffs and widescreen hooks, combined with unorthodox guitar tunings and arty psychedelia, had resulted in a record packed with cuts like Outshined, Rusty Cage and Jesus Christ Pose that ultim
