Review by Daniel for Soundgarden - Louder Than Love (1989)

I found this CD lying around in a big box of old CDs in the back of the cupboard & felt like revisiting it this week. "Louder Than Love" was my introduction to Soundgarden (& probably the grunge scene) back in the day through the video clips to "Hands All Over" & "Loud Love" which used to be played on a music show called "Rage" on late-night Australian TV. It was through these songs that I fell in love with Chris Cornell's voice & he'd go on to become my all-time favourite singer. "Louder Than Love" covers a lot of different musical territory with grunge, stoner rock & stoner metal being the most prominent in my opinion. There are a few genuinely doomy & sludgy moments & even a hint at southern rock but overall I think this record is best served by a dual Metal Academy tag of Alternative Metal & Stoner Metal so I'll be putting a Hall of Judgement nomination through to get stoner metal added shortly.

Soundgarden have always been at their best when they're at their Black Sabbath-inspired heaviest & that's definitely the case here. A lot of that has to do with Cornell having his leash taken off so that he can truly soar with those soul-piercing shrieks but the way the band build tension & use tinges of psychedelia is also pretty amazing. There are some truly sublime tracks on this record, some of Soundgarden's finest ever in fact. Both sides open with two utterly killer monsters & it's not hard to see why the grunge movement blew up off the back of that stuff. Unfortunately both sides take a downward trajectory after that with the B side sadly descending a little too far over the last couple of songs which leaves the album finishing on a poor note. If you can look past those filler tracks though, there is some wonderful material included from a band that was packed with stars & featuring one of the greatest rock/metal front men of all time in his absolute prime. Cornell would continue to ride that peak into 1991's all-conquering & career-defining "Badmotorfinger" record & "Louder Than Love" has tended to be overlooked ever since but I can assure you that it's worth exploring if you're into rock/metal music in general (which you obviously are if you're at the Academy).