Flower

Album: Ultramega OK (1988)

As the only single on the band’s debut album, “Flower” stands as Soundgarden’s introduction to the world outside of the Pacific Northwest. That introduction is a charging rhinoceros through the speakers, a blend of swirling psychedelia (complete with feedback caused by Kim Thayil blowing over his guitar strings) and monster metal riffs. The main attraction, unsurprisingly, is Chris Cornell’s voice, equally impressive in its menacing grit as its apocalyptic yowl. -Adam Kivel

Face Pollution

Album: Badmotorfinger (1991)

Like much of the grunge scene, Soundgarden has at least one root in the punk world, and the jagged “Face Pollution” embraces it. Sure, bassist Ben Shepherd wrote most of it in the very un-punk 9/8 time signature, Ernst Long adds a trumpet to the guitar riff, and the unison section gets a bit proggy, but the full-steam ahead thrash and Cornell’s screed against conformity and fake selves is pure punk. While other bands get the apathy tag more often, “I don’t feel like feeling/ feeling like you” hits that nail pretty well on the head. -Adam Kivel

Head Down

Album: Superunknown (1994)

On record, “Head Down” was a tad overshadowed given its placement next to grunge-era classics like “Spoonman” and “Black Hole Sun”, which is unfortunate because it encompasses the best elements of the band as good as any one song they’ve ever produced. From the dark minor key chords to the odd time signatures, Thayil’s penchant for guitar heroics to Matt Cameron’s other-level drumming, it’s a song that perfectly boasts the prog-meets-metal technicality that helped lift the Seattle band a notch above their flannel-clad peers. -Ryan Bray

Loud Love

Album: Louder Than Love (1989)

That isn’t an E-bow at the beginning of “Loud Love”. “I simply stood in front of the amp, got the note ringing until it was feeding back, and slid my finger up the fret on the string and dragged the feedback with it,” Thayil once explained. Too many ’90s guitarists dabbled in ’70s rock, but Thayil really made it work again, soldering Black Sabbath’s late-night distortion to Zeppelin’s whimsical riffage to create a fine plateau. Regardless of the peaking aural altitudes, Cornell kept climbing, and on this one his straggly hair’s caught up in the atmosphere. -Michael Roffman

Mailman

Album: Superunknown (1994)

The nuclear engine chug of “Mailman” employs some of the most open-ended dark lyrics in the Soundgarden catalog. While Cornell reportedly told a crowd once that the song was about killing your boss, the chorus (“I know I’m headed for the bottom/ but I’m riding you all the way”) evokes a knowing sneer for anyone ready to take somebody else out. Thayil’s downtuned guitar crunch seems to have already spent a good deal of time at that bottom, and Cornell’s howl ups the creep factor, every inch of the tune spitting catharsis through gritted teeth. -Adam Kivel

Rusty Cage

Album: Badmotorfinger (1991)

Before nu-metal bands bought 7-string guitars to make all their dirty riffs even lower and gnarlier, Thayil was downtuning his E string to a low B back in 1991, and there’s hardly a Soundgarden song that felt that harder than “Rusty Cage”. The Route 66 highway chase of the verses and choruses are only parenthesis for the bridge — one of the quintessential head banging moments in Soundgarden’s catalog. The song announced the new guard of Soundgarden, a fleshed out metal band. Or was it grunge? “Rusty Cage” leans hard into both genres, feeling both like a Pearl Jam and Led Zeppelin song. -Jeremy D. Larson

Pretty Noose

Album: Down on the Upside (1996)

That sun-spoiled, wah-drenched guitar riff, which more or less bubbles up the song, could very well summarize the ’90s alternative sound — not to mention its lyrics. “And I don’t like what you got me hanging from,” Cornell croons repeatedly, pasting up another bonafide slogan for Generation X. Note the track’s hazy fatigue that refuses to subdue, much thanks to Cameron’s druggy percussion: “When we recorded that, I had walked to the studio (in Seattle) and my legs were really tired. But to make a long story short, I was trying to get a walking feel on the drum part. So it probably has a little weird shuffle to it probably from that walk that I took to the studio that day.” -Michael Roffman

Nazi Driver

Album: Ultramega OK (1988)

Soundgarden has always fallen into the dark, but “Nazi Driver” could tickle the likes of Charles Manson to death. Gnawing on a crumpled piece of tar, Cornell spouts out Holocaust-themed lyricism, pleading that he’s gonna “make it right.” There’s been debate amongst fans about its perspective, but it’s far creepier if the narrator is, in fact, a proud Nazi. A “pile of bones” is his bed, and he wants to “make it right” by “rip[ping] the legs from the thighs.” If it weren’t for the proud post-punk behind it, this one would make a superb black metal anthem. File this under “spooky.” -Michael Roffman

Fell on Black Days

Album: Superunknown (1994)

“Fell on Black Days” is a lyrical suicide note showcasing the aphotic side of life in the Pacific Northwest. Between the rain, the heroin, and the imperceptible gnaw of depression, things get bleak. The occasional black day affects everyone. But being trapped in a doomed existence with no light or hope for change is a crippling state of worthless being. “Black Hole Sun” finds Cornell bellowing an aloof apathy, greeting the end of times with a baleful grin, whereas here, Cornell pleads, mourns, then resigns. There won’t be an escape; just mental anguish and pulsing regrets. Thayil’s odd time-meter signatures augment the off-kilter menace, while Sheperd’s bass trudges through the inky muck of another day in Hell. This track sticks like tar, but it’s staying power is a tribute to the band’s comprehension of the dark times as well as the good. -Dan Pfleegor

Outshined

Album: Badmotorfinger (1991)

Cornell isn’t exactly the poet laureate of grunge, but “I’m looking California/ but feeling Minnesota” is one couplet that, ironically, stands out among the rest. That feeling of feeling forever outshined by what’s around you, forever in the shadow of someone else, forever midwestern, resonantes long into the future, 20 years after its release. And if there’s a highlight among the song itself, it’s Cameron’s manipulation of the drum part at 4:43. Soundgarden always knew how to build a song to a climax, to give their songs a good, pleasing, rock & roll arc — something simple to reconnect with the blues rock of old. Air-drumming with Cameron is essential on “Outshined”. -Jeremy D. Larson

Ty Cobb

Album: Down on the Upside (1996)

The actual Ty Cobb was a fantastic baseball player in the early 20th century, and purportedly had a terrible temper and was a huge racist piece of shit. According to the band, they just used “Ty Cobb” as place-holder of a symbol that everyone would know as a notorious piece of shit. It’s not really about baseball, the lyrics aren’t “I’m hitting/ fuck you all” it’s “hard-headed fuck you all.” Hey, at least he’s got a stubborn cardio-punk song to his name. -Jeremy D. Larson

Gun

Album: Louder Than Love (1989)

A reminder both of the wise-ass anger of the grunge scene and the fact that Soundgarden ran in concentric circles with metal-leaning acts like the Melvins, the head-banging Sabbath thunder of “Gun” pushes macho aggresssion while simultaneously mocking its violent tendencies. Those bass-heavy riffs and Cornell’s seething delivery scream masculinity, but the brilliance of double entendres like “shoot shoot shoot till their minds are open” denounce the very violence that it seems to promote. -Adam Kivel

Jesus Christ Pose

Album: Badmotorfinger (1991)

Creating controversy just on its title alone, “Jesus Christ Pose” is not a song critical of religion, but rather the larger than life personae associated with many rock frontmen, and at the time, particularly Jane’s Addiction’s Perry Farrell. Penned by Cornell after growing irritation at seeing public figures simultaneously craving while publicly decrying god-hood, “Jesus Christ Pose” pairs biting, critical lyrics with extraordinary technical musicianship. Thayil opens the track by bending his strings to create a feedback crunch before repeatedly punctuating Cameron’s rapid-fire percussion with twisted riffs, while Shepherd adds some density that surprisingly elevates the already brutal, ear-shattering sounds to a near perfect concussive ensemble. It’s a homogeny of heavy metal riffs, hardcore fury, and alt rock accessibility that finds Soundgarden at near perfection. -Len Comaratta

Blow Up The Outside World

Album: Down on the Upside (1996)

Anyone comparing themselves to The Beatles is just asking for trouble, but Soundgarden more than earned the right to do so after recording “Blow Up The Outside World”. “I suppose there is a bit of Paul McCartney and a little bit of Lennon in the flavor of the song,” Thayil said. He’s right on the money, as the constant tonal shifts are akin to the Jekyll and Hyde dynamic of history’s most famous songwriting team, and more importantly, the many sides of Cornell himself. He’s always at his best when he amps up the frustration and scales back the poetry. Here, we get to experience this angsty ascent firsthand, from the weakened reverb of the verses to the raw-throated explosion of the chorus. It all fades to oblivion at the end, when everything melts into a staggered psychedelic chant that sounds like the wishful title has been fulfilled. -Dan Caffrey

The Day I Tried To Live

Album: Superunknown (1994)

Chris Cornell never wrote a finer track than this, and arguably, he’s never sounded better, either. (For proof, wait for his nasally wail four minutes in, when he just fucking lets loose on the chorus.) Although it’s outright bleak (“The lives we make never seem to ever get us anywhere but dead”) and decrepit (“I wallowed in the blood and mud with all the other pigs”), there’s a positive vibe to it all that runs deeper than the chummy rhythm section of Shepherd and Cameron. That’s not a mistake, as Cornell told Rolling Stone: “A lot of people misinterpreted that song as a suicide-note song. Taking the word live too literally. “The Day I Tried to Live” means more like the day I actually tried to open up myself and experience everything that’s going on around me as opposed to blowing it all off and hiding in a cave.” It’s a shame he’s lost that subtlety these days; it was his strongest suit. -Michael Roffman

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