Soundgarden

Mixing '70s metal influences with punk, Soundgarden were in the top tier of bands to emerge from the Seattle grunge scene, but for all of their association with that sound, they went on to transcend it. They first came together in 1984 with singer/guitarist Chris Cornell, guitarist Kim Thayil, bass player Hiro Yamamoto, with drummer Matt Cameron coming aboard later (Cornell started out on drums). They cut three tracks for a 1986 compilation album, and in 1987 their single "Hunted Down" became one of the earliest releases on future grunge institution Sub Pop Records. The Screaming Life EP followed in 1987. After 1988's Fopp EP, the band released it's first full-length LP, Ultramega OK, on SST Records, which started attracting attention to Soundgarden. But it was on their second album, 1989's Louder Than Love on A&M Records, that the band started really defining their sound, with Cornell's Robert Plant-like wail coming fully into focus and Thayil's Black Sabbath-informed riffs growing tighter and more concise. 1991's Badmotorfinger is the album that broke the band, reaching No. 39 in the U.S. charts and helping to put grunge on the map alongside contemporaneous albums by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, et al. By this time Ben Shepherd had become the bassist. In 1994 Soundgarden reached its peak with Superunknown, which hit No. 1 and eventually went quintuple Platinum. In addition to hard-rocking hits like "Fell on Black Days" and "Spoonman," the album found Soundgarden expanding its sound to include sophisticated, melodic ballads like "Black Hole Sun," which became the band's biggest single. The follow-up, 1996's Down on the Upside was similarly successful, but internal tensions and weariness with the music business caused the band's breakup in 1987. The members all found other paths, including Cornell's solo career and Cameron joining Pearl Jam. But Soundgarden announced their reunion in 2010, and in 2012 they released what would prove to be their final album, King Animal, which went to No. 5. The band subsequently toured, and in 2015 announced that they were at work on new songs. But on May 18, 2017, the Soundgarden story came to a sudden, tragic end when Cornell was found dead by suicide in his Detroit hotel room after a show by the band.