Soundgarden carved out a place for heavy metal in alternative rock. They were not the first band to draw upon the heavy, sludgy sounds of the ’70s; the group picked up a thread left hanging by fellow Seattle rockers Green River, grunge pioneers who favored the scuzzy rock of the Stooges, and they shared Jane’s Addiction’s love of grandiose heavy rock. Nevertheless, Soundgarden popularized metal within alternative rock, even obliterated the line separating the two subcultures. Melding the slow grind of Black Sabbath and cinematic scope of Led Zeppelin with the D.I.Y. aesthetics of punk, Soundgarden played with an intelligence and ironic sense of humor that was indebted to the American underground of the mid-’80s. Their music contained a similar sense of adventure, often taking detours into psychedelia, unconventional guitar tunings, and complicated time signatures. Vocalist Chris Cornell and guitarist Kim Thayil were excellent foils, with Cornell’s powerful wail pushing against Thayil’s winding riffs, a chemistry that gave the band a distinctive character that belonged neither to the mainstream nor the underground. This chemistry was evident from the band’s start, when Soundgarden was one of the first groups to release a recording on Seattle’s pioneering Sub Pop label. Those early records built a considerable buzz, suggesting Soundgarden would be the band that broke down the commercial doors for alternative rock. That didn’t turn out to be the case. They were eclipsed by the meteoric success of Nirvana, fellow Sub Pop alumni whose Nevermind became a blockbuster while Soundgarden was working on Badmotorfinger in the fall of 1991. As it turns out, Soundgarden received a boost from grunge exploding in the mainstream. Superunknown, their 1994 album, became an international smash, with its hit single ‘Black Hole Sun’ becoming a standard of its era.
For a band so heavily identified with the Seattle scene, it’s ironic that two of its founding members were from the Midwest. Kim Thayil (guitar), Hiro Yamamoto (bass), and Bruce Pavitt were all friends in Illinois who decided to head to Olympia, Washington, to attend college in 1981. Though none of them completed college, all of them became involved in the Washington underground music scene. Pavitt was the only one who didn’t play — he founded a fanzine that later became the Sub Pop record label. Yamamoto played in several cover bands before forming a band in 1984 with his roommate Chris Cornell (vocals), a Seattle native who had previously played drums in several bands. Thayil soon joined the duo and the group named itself Soundgarden after a local Seattle sculpture. Scott Sundquist was originally the band’s drummer, but he was replaced by Matt Cameron in 1986. Over the next two years, Soundgarden gradually built up a devoted cult following through their club performances.
Pavitt signed Soundgarden to his fledgling Sub Pop label in the summer of 1987, releasing the single ‘Hunted Down’ before the EP Screaming Life appeared later in the year. Screaming Life and the group’s second EP, 1988’s FOPP, became underground hits and earned the attention of several major labels. The band decided to sign to SST instead of a major, releasing Ultramega OK by the end of 1988. Ultramega OK received strong reviews among alternative and metal publications, and the group decided to make the leap to a major for its next album, 1989’s Louder Than Love. Released on A&M Records, Louder Than Love became a word-of-mouth hit, earning positive reviews from mainstream publications, peaking at 108 on the charts, and earning a Grammy nomination. Following the album’s fall 1989 release, Yamamoto left the band to return to school. Jason Everman, a former guitarist for Nirvana, briefly played with the band before Ben Shepherd joined in early 1990.