Best Classic "Grunge" Bands

One of my most favourite albums ever. ❤️

Living in the PNW, I've seen more bigfoot than teens dressing in grunge..

Who says? The mainstream media usually. They and the labels of the time tried to ruin metal and did destroy a few bands/artists. 

As for that song, it's punkish or is it better said post-punkish? 

I suspect for a lot of people, they are really only familiar with only one album from one of these groups, as in almost each case for the four listed here, there was really only one album from each that made a (Trumpian) huge impact. That’s not to say other albums by the bands didn’t sell well, so don’t get your knickers in a twist, fanboys. But for the people who weren’t really fans of the music, it’s pretty easy to guess which album they know from each of these bands. And, of course, often enough, they’ll know only the singles from that album.

For me, the self-titled Alice In Chains album that followed Dirt (often known as Tripod) is the greatest album the band released in their first phase. And it could almost be a different band from the one who made Dirt. They lost a lot of fans with it (I was on a listserv group back in the early days of the interweb, and this album was kind of like SW’s The Future Bites in the polarising reactions and emotions it provoked), and probably didn’t gain any new ones - but man, for those who were ready and able to appreciate a change, there were so many great rewards. I’ve never understood why people wanted a Dirt II. Or, in the case of Pearl Jam, a Ten II.

In the case of Pearl Jam, Ten is one of my least favourite albums by the band, which in a way is not entirely fair - as every song on there is amazing. But in every case, the songs sound better live, and I’ve so many live PJ albums that I really don’t need to listen to Ten to hear the songs from it. The biggest positive in PJ’s history was getting Matt Cameron onboard. It’s not even about whether or not he is the best drummer that PJ has has, but he is undoubtedly the best drummer for them. He’s brought out the best in the band, and the best in the songs recorded before his arrival. Most of my favourite albums are those with Cameron on drums.

Soundgarden, well, my favourite album is Down on the Upside, which I think probably has some of their proggiest moments. I know everyone goes for Superunknown, and I don’t dislike it at all. It has some great tunes. I actually don’t know why I feel somewhat ambivalent about it. I guess some of it comes down to how disappointed I was when I first heard it. I knew it was going to be different, because Badmotorfinger was different from Louder Than Love was different from UltramegaOK. And yet, I got over that fairly quickly. So I don’t know what it is about Superunknown that rubs me up the wrong way, even though I love most of the songs on it.

But the point about lead vocals is worth commenting on. What I found, and still find, quite incredible is how distinctive and impressive most of the “grunge” voices are. Layne Staley and Chris Cornell, especially had incredible voices. And, as much as I love Layne’s voice, Jerry Cantrell was always my favourite AiC vocalist. I may not like Nirvana, but there is no doubting how impassioned and emotive and recognisable Kurt Cobain’s vocals were. Eddie Vedder is easily the least impressive vocalist from the big four, but possibly the most distinctive and easily recognised. It’s notable that it was his vocal style that was copied or emulated by so many bands who appeared after the first wave of “grunge”. I’ve often wondered if the reason that people tend to moan about Vedder’s vocals isn’t so much because they are bad, so much as because they inspired so many less impressive (and definitely less original) vocals.