Soundgarden
's finest hour,
Superunknown
is a sprawling, 70-minute magnum opus that pushes beyond any previous boundaries.
had always loved replicating
Led Zeppelin
and
Black Sabbath
riffs, but
's debt is more to mid-period
Zep
's layered arrangements and sweeping epics. Their earlier
punk
influences are rarely detectable, replaced by surprisingly effective appropriations of
pop
and psychedelia.
Badmotorfinger
boasted more than its fair share of indelible riffs, but here the main hooks reside mostly in
Chris Cornell
's vocals; accordingly, he's mixed right up front, floating over the band instead of cutting through it. The rest of the production is just as crisp, with the band achieving a huge, robust sound that makes even the heaviest songs sound deceptively bright. But the most important reason
is such a rich listen is twofold: the band's embrace of
psychedelia
, and their rapidly progressing mastery of songcraft.
had always been a little mind-bending, but the full-on experiments with
give them a much wider sonic palette, paving the way for less metallic sounds and instruments, more detailed arrangements, and a bridge into
(which made the eerie
ballad
"Black Hole Sun"
an inescapable hit). That blossoming melodic skill is apparent on most of the record, not just the poppier songs and
Cornell
-penned hits; though a couple of drummer
Matt Cameron
's contributions are pretty undistinguished, they're easy to overlook, given the overall consistency. The focused songwriting allows the band to stretch material out for grander effect, without sinking into the pointlessly drawn-out muck that cluttered their early records. The dissonance and odd time signatures are still in force, though not as jarring or immediately obvious, which means that the album reveals more subtleties with each listen. It's obvious that
was consciously styled as a masterwork, and it fulfills every ambition. [
was remastered and re-released in 2014.] ~ Steve Huey