Album Rating: 5.0

"^ true, but certainly not as much by the time they reached 'Down on the Upside' imo"



Which does not account for their most substantial releases which would be more of an even split.

Album Rating: 4.5

I'm not really arguing about which is better. I just think Doof's opinion on Soundgarden is annoying and wrong.

soundgarden is inarguably more influenced by traditional rock and metal than nirvana. chris has literally said that in interviews

Album Rating: 5.0

"doof is right. the rock/metalheads will gravitate towards soundgarden, the punks will like nirvana more. or you can like both because who gives af which is better"



I'm more of a Punk and I would much rather hear a band who did solid Hard Rock with off-kilter Punk ideas than listen to a band who mostly played Sonic Youth and Wipers licks that would only make the cutting room floor.

Album Rating: 4.0

I'd say 'Superunknown' is more 'classic' but sure this one (and before) are a bit more of a mix of directions they're trying.

Album Rating: 4.5

"soundgarden is inarguably more influenced by traditional rock and metal than nirvana."



Yes, which makes them "good egg" rockers with "nothing to say", right?

@virathius idc what youd rather hear. im talking about the culture of the early 90s

Album Rating: 5.0

Soundgarden being more influenced by Hard Rock isn't something that anyone is trying to deny, but writing them off as nothing but good egg Hard Rockers when they have more influences to their belt than just that. And trying to frame Nirvana as the more Punk choice simply because of that is lolworthy, especially when Punk bands utilizing more Hard Rock than what people think of as the mainstream average isn't super uncommon. And on top of that Kurt couldn't fully deny Hard Rock having some influence to their sound.



It's a general thing I've seen in online discussions where people just immediately write off any band who even has the slightest bit of Hard Rock as just that with nothing else. Regardless of how much Hard Rock is in said band.

nirvana are literally known as the band that took "punk to the masses". whether or not one sounds more/less punk to you is irrelevant. and i agree nirvana ripped off a lot of bands, im talking about their cultural impact.

Album Rating: 5.0

Which is not relevant when we are talking about how the bands sound. Grunge is mainly a melting pot of Hard Rock and Punk, Soundgarden did more than just play Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Those are the main things I'm trying to get at.

Album Rating: 4.5

"nirvana are literally known as the band that took "punk to the masses". whether or not one sounds more/less punk to you is irrelevant. and i agree nirvana ripped off a lot of bands, im talking about their cultural impact."



How is any of that disputed? lol

Album Rating: 4.0

If the original comment was just ‘musically interesting’ then I’d still dispute that but I’d have taken a different line of reasoning.



‘Interesting overall’ Nirvana have to win it for me.



Casavir, I said they had not a lot to say, not nothing to say. Soundgarden lyrics are more like Screaming Trees or even STP lyrics for me. Do the job but not revelation hour. Cobain’s lyrics were getting increasingly interesting. Cultural impact Nirvana were huge.

Album Rating: 5.0

If it's disputed then it's not being done so here.



I can agree to that under the basis of Nevermind being the highest topper of any Punk influenced album at its time of release even if Punk still had a major grounding years prior. Honestly though considering the direction Punk had already been leading up to then if it weren't Nirvana I'd imagine someone else would have "brought Punk to the masses" pretty easily.

Album Rating: 4.0

Nirvana balanced the mainstream with the underground really well though



Sure you had Weezer and Green Day later among others but they always seemed way more mainstream straight away.



Nirvana were an underground band who exploded, I mean the debut is definitely the work of a band who could have remained very underground.



They just had the charisma, freshness (not quite the same as originality), style and 'the breakthrough song' at the same time as having an album of consistent quality to back it up.



Soundgarden had all those things to a lesser degree, but I still rate them and they might have released more good material than Nirvana as they had a longer career. Two bands I've been listening to for over thirty years so not saying I can't have new opinions about it all but also have a lot of water under the bridge with them. Watching 'Superunknown' performed a year before Cornell's death was a special thing in retrospect, very good performance.

Album Rating: 5.0

"Sure you had Weezer and Green Day later among others but they always seemed way more mainstream straight away."



tbf Weezer had The Kitchen Tapes where they sounded more like Pavement and Green Day had 1039/Smoothed Out. I guess you could say that those weren't technically debut albums and were more Demo/EP/Early Comp territory unlike Bleach, but I don't think it would be unreasonable to suggest that if Weezer had've stopped after Pinkerton or maybe even Maladroit, and if Green Day stopped before American Idiot then it would be possible for those to be viewed as more than just footnotes for the hardcore fans.

quite insightful

Album Rating: 5.0

You know what there’s very few Soundgarden songs that I would say sound remotely like a lot of their hard rock ancestors. They really do just sound like Soundgarden

they sound like a band agreed

Album Rating: 4.0

'You know what there’s very few Soundgarden songs that I would say sound remotely like a lot of their hard rock ancestors. They really do just sound like Soundgarden'



True, they are original enough, but also if you said find individual tracks that sound the most influenced by the Beatles, Floyd, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Stooges, etc it would be quite an easy task, especially on the later albums.

Album Rating: 4.0

"You know what there’s very few Soundgarden songs that I would say sound remotely like a lot of their hard rock ancestors. They really do just sound like Soundgarden"



Nobody's accusing them of being derivative, but there's a fairly clear lineal connection between songs like Outshined and Slaves and Bulldozers and Sabbath or Zeppelin.