Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger (25th Anniversary Edition, Lenticular Cover, Etched, Gatefold, 180 Gram) (2 LP)

Double 180gm audiophile black vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket with a removable, limited-edition, 3D lenticular silver foil litho cover. Features a 25th anniversary vinyl etching on side four and digital download. Digitally remastered 25th Anniversary edition of this album from the beloved Seattle rockers. Originally released on October 8th, 1991, Badmotorfinger spawned three singles that have become iconic songs of rock: 'Jesus Christ Pose,' 'Outshined' and 'Rusty Cage.' Badmotorfinger was the band's third studio album. After touring in support of it's previous album, Louder Than Love (1989), Soundgarden began the recording sessions for it's next album with new bassist Ben Shepherd. The music on the album maintained the band's heavy metal sound while featuring an increased focus on songwriting as compared with the band's previous releases. The focus on the Seattle grunge scene helped bring attention to Badmotorfinger. It became the band's highest charting album at the time on the Billboard 200. In 1992, Badmotorfinger was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.

Bidding for a popular breakthrough with their second major-label album, Soundgarden suddenly developed a sense of craft, with the result that Badmotorfinger became far and away their most fully realized album to that point. Pretty much everything about Badmotorfinger is a step up from its predecessors -- the production is sharper and the music more ambitious, while the songwriting takes a quantum leap in focus and consistency. In so doing, the band abolishes the murky meandering that had often plagued them in the past, turning in a lean, muscular set that signaled their arrival in rock's big leagues. Conventional wisdom has it that despite platinum sales, Badmotorfinger got lost amid the blockbuster success of Nevermind and Ten (all were released around the same time). But the fact is that, though they're all great records, Badmotorfinger is much less accessible by comparison. Not that it isn't melodic, but it also sounds twisted and gnarled, full of dissonant riffing, impossible time signatures, howling textural solos, and weird, droning tonalities. It's surprisingly cerebral and arty music for a band courting mainstream metal audiences, but it attacks with scientific precision. Part of that is due to the presence of new bassist Ben Shepherd, who gives the band its thickest rhythmic foundation yet -- and, moreover, immediately shoulders the departed Hiro Yamamoto's share of songwriting duties. But it's apparent that the whole band has greatly expanded the scope of its ambitions. And Badmotorfinger fulfills them, pulling all the different threads of the band's sound together into a mature, confident, well-written record. This is heavy, challenging hard rock full of intellectual sensibility and complex band interplay. And with their next album, Soundgarden would learn how to make it fully accessible to mainstream audiences as well. [The 2016 reissue of Soundgarden's breakthrough Badmotorfinger arrives in two separate formats: a double-CD set that contains a disc of outtakes and live performances, and a seven-disc box that simply offers more of the same. The second disc on the double-CD is effectively a sampler of the big box, containing a few of the rough run-throughs of the album's songs, plus excerpts from the March 6, 1992 show at Seattle's Paramount Theatre. Neither edition contains the SOMMS EP, which was a limited-edition bonus to 1992 pressings of the album commemorating Soundgarden's appearance at Lollapalooza, and its absence is puzzling because it's not only one of the band's rarer releases, it's better than much of what's heard here. Apart from "New Damage," which features Queen's Brian May on guitar, all the studio outtakes are unproduced early takes on the album, which are interesting but not as powerful as the finished record.] ~ Steve Huey

• Format: Vinyl
• Genre: Rock
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Tracklist