For a longer version of this article to include song breakdowns, click here.
Introduction
Welcome to the inaugural band ranking post! At risk of becoming too Grunge in this blog I did feel like this one makes sense to start with. Despite it’s influence on alternative rock since the 90s, It’s not an entirely large genre in terms of bands that were grunge (as it is more of a movement rather than based on a certain sound). And I am talking about not really considering post-grunge groups like Bush as Grunge (or even Smashing Pumpkins, Grunge… What?), but not quite being as strict as purists who feel has to be from Seattle (which to me geographically limiting it is just crazy).
That said you’ll probably recognize most of the bands especially toward the top of this list. I definitely didn’t give the early bands any extra credit for establishing the genres because quite frankly I don’t like their sound at all. Bands like The Melvins or Green River I think the sound was just too unrefined for me. I understand the appeal to that scene at the time and can definitely hear the influencing sound but I don’t need to hear it more than once in my life.
Anyways there is a lot of variety within Grunge so this list is definitely eye of the beholder, please let me know what you think. I expect a lot of hate for #6 hah. I’ll start with #1 but to me the top 3 are VERY close.
#1. Soundgarden
Despite my intro blurb about not giving the early bands extra credit; Soundgarden is actually one of the pioneers of Grunge. What gives them that special edge to take #1 on this list is a generational singer (and one I consider the best rock singer of all time). Front-manned by the legendary Chris Cornell; Soundgarden gave audiences such a unique musical experience that even the best singers could not match. His vocal range is not easily matched and the power he delivers his verses just gets you to 100 right away; it is truly extraordinary in every sense of the word.
The Band’s discography also offers a journey in Cornell’s vocal progression (as well as the sound of the band as a whole). The first two albums are much more crude and unrefined though you still get great tracks like “Flower” and “Loud Love” but you get your first masterpiece album with Badmotorfinger in 1991; and since it was actually released just 2 weeks after the iconic Nevermind by Nirvana, and their timing couldn’t be any better. With tracks like “Rusty Cage”, “Outshined”, and “Jesus Christ Pose”; the album is a demonstrative marriage of the old Soundgarden sound and their new blossoming sound they’d continue with the album Superunknown
Superunknown 3 years later is their most commercially successful album and while timing has something to do with that as Grunge had firmly taken the world by storm at that point, I also think they just hit with more songs than BMF. The tracks are even moreso refined and you can just keep hearing the progression through the albums. I’d say this one actually has a lot of sounds that are similar to what you’d hear in Cornell’s later group Audioslave. There are so many real good songs on this album like “Fell on Black Days,” “Spoonman,” “The Day I Tried to Live,” and “4th of July,” and several others but one truly stands out above and that is “Black Hole Sun.” I know you’ve heard this one; the sound of this one just transcends the whole album and maybe the whole band.
And don’t sleep on Down on the Upside. Soundgarden may have been on their downswing but there are some very solid tracks on this album. You really get a ton of attitude with Chris’ vocals throughout this album; especially right off the bat with “Pretty Noose.” “Ty Cobb” hits you in the face, Screams at you, and just as quickly runs away, it’s a quick trip. Then you got “Burden in my Hand” which is maybe the most mainstream song that made it off the album (probably because of the acoustic elements). Soundgarden broke up shortly after and while they reunited and put out King Animal in the 2010s with some decent tracks; its this work in the Grunge era that officially anoints them king of this list.
Check out their Spotify Here. Essential Listening: “Jesus Christ Pose”
#2. Pearl Jam
It’s actually fitting putting this group after Soundgarden because Eddie Vedder was introduced to the rest of the band in Cornell’s side project (Temple of the Dog) which was honoring the death of the frontman of Mother Love Bone; the members left behind from MLB teamed with Eddie and Pearl Jam was born (actually Mookie Blaylock but they settled on a better name hah). And quite a journey they’ve embarked on since their formation as they are by my count the longest tenured Grunge band by far. Starting with their debut album masterpiece Ten in 1991 (you may have gathered 1991 was a very pivotal and amazing year for the Grunge genre), and 11 studio albums later in 2024 they are still producing original music. That longevity alone is probably the tiebreaker for me over the next band on this ranking list.
Again they wasted No time ascending with the album Ten (released a few weeks before the Iconic Nevermind…). Great tracks on this one include “Once”; “Even Flow”, where you really get introduced to Eddie Vedder’s signature sound in my opinion; “Alive.” This song I will forever know it for one of the Best Solos of All Time! You also have “Black” or “Jeremy”, man this album was amazing!
For a band which I started by highlighting their longevity, I just had to spend most of the time writing about that album; it’s just that good. Listen to that album, fall in love with Pearl Jam, and explore the rest of the discography (Especially the 90s albums, and Vs. following Ten is a very impressive album as well; shout out to “Rearviewmirror”). These guys more than survived the fall of Grunge and are true rock conquerors! They also perfectly exemplify that not all grunge sounds like Nirvana, and the Genre holds many different diverse sounds. I also don’t think it is a stretch to call them the U2 of Grunge hah (I’ll probably get crucified in the comments for that one).
Check out their Spotify Here. Essential Listening: “Black”
#3. Alice In Chains
It’s not fair that they had to compete with Cornell within their own genre or else Alice In Chains would own the honor of best grunge vocalist. I will give them darkest sound award though. I like to call Grunge one of the most diverse sounding genres and I wouldn’t be able to make that claim without Alice in Chains; they just bring you into a different headspace when you hear their songs. You cannot deny the attitude and confidence in every single one of their tracks. I feel like a specter is coming for me when I play them.
They burst onto the grunge scene right away with a solid album in Facelift in 1990 and didn’t look back. Two bangers right away with “We Die Young” and then perhaps their most well-known hit, “Man in the Box.” I know that’s where I heard AIC the first time on the radio. also got “Bleed the Freak” and “I Know Somethin (Bout You);” Quick aside, I think that’s why this band gets #3 from me instead of leaping #1 and #2, because they just don’t have that one song that for me just breaks into my top 10 all time. They did so many songs so well, for multiple albums, but I have trouble finding something that is an all-music favorite thing (like solo, or riff, or song). But that doesn’t mean they weren’t making extremely high-quality music!
Their next album was their most successful, and while I prefer the former album, Dirt has some amazing tracks on it and is deserving of elevating this group into Grunge Gods. With “Them Bones”, “The Rooster” and Finally, Strong in Strong out, “Would” is probably my favorite AIC song.
They pumped out 2 more albums in short time (2-3 years) when I think severe addiction caught up with Layne Staley. Heroin addiction unfortunately seemed to go hand in hand with Grunge and Staley is perhaps the poster child of that. Its actually a testament to how good the band was when they were able to produce such high quality tracks during this tumultuous period. “Brush Away” and “Heaven Beside You” was a strong hit in those days with a catchy chorus. Sadly they just couldn’t continue after 1996 with Staley leaving and finally succumbing to his disease in 2002. By then however they already cemented their place in hard rock history and gave us many memorable tracks.
Check out their Spotify Here. Essential Listening: “I Know Somethin (Bout You)”
#4. Stone Temple Pilots
Limiting Grunge to Seattle at the time was a massive disservice to the genre and to these guys. They are very good and they deserve to have a seat at the table. Kicking in the exclusive Seattle doors with their great tracks is a testament to their music because they just had to fight that much harder to compete. While they were from SoCal, the grunge influence (both them being influenced and them influencing others) is unmistakable. Never more evident then on their debut album Core.
This album has many great tracks on it. One thing that makes STP stand out to me is their riff writing and that is all over the album. “Sex Type Thing” and “Naked Sunday” are very riff driven, then of course you have “Plush.” They followed that album up with Purple and I’d say while a bit of a sound departure from Core (and some would argue Grunge), it did produce some very memorable hits. “Vasoline”; “Big Empty”; and a ballad type song with “Interstate Love Song,” perhaps their most popular/mainstream track. You move into Tiny Music and you can kind of get the feel now that these guys switch up their sound from each album. Their versatility is impressive. You got a few solid tracks like “Pops Love Suicide” and “Lady Picture Show” but then out of nowhere comes “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart”. I absolutely love the pace of this song
Apparently Scott Weiland had a hard time getting along with band mates and got fired (in part due to substance abuse issues) and while STP attempted to go on with other singers, it just wasn’t the same. Still by then they had already well established their place in Grungedom and Rock music in general. Side Note: Scott Weiland fan? Check out his stuff with Velvet Revolver (with Slash and other GnR folks); that group was pretty solid in their own right.
Check out their Spotify Here. Essential Listening: “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart”
#5. Nirvana
I did put these guys in the inaugural Overrated bands post Here, so for those who read that, this “low ranking” cannot be too much of a surprise. Don’t worry, the tone of this will be more appreciative than the overrated post (Which was more talking to their levels of rock gods). I do also want to emphasize that I really like Grunge, so making the top 5 is hardly “Low.” Try as I might, their music simply cannot be denied.
My guess is if you are reading this article, you probably already know a lot about Nirvana, and their stamp on the music of their generation; and they accomplished that essentially with 1 album (their 2nd): Nevermind. This band is so well known that you probably know every detail of the album cover alone (Naked Baby!). Right off the bat you get “Smells Like Teen Spirit” which is BY FAR my favorite Nirvana song, and perhaps most people’s. Say what I want about Nirvana, that is a perfect riff; After they do continue to rattle off a few well known songs in a row including hugely popular (and constantly radio played) “In Bloom” and “Come as You Are”, Overrated or not, I do appreciate these little things Cobain does in his songwriting that SO many fans adore.
They followed that mammoth album with a very solid In Utero. “Heart-Shaped Box” and “All Apologies” are great tracks from this album. following that, Nirvana got so big that they managed to get their MTV’s Unplugged album as a household name! Sadly, Cobain ended his life and with that the band so many people know by heart and we can only wonder what if they kept going. Fortunately they had a decent period to release a lot of very good music into the rock world.
Check out their Spotify Here. Essential Listening: “Sliver” (Curveball here)
#6. Screaming Trees
These guys were really close to taking #5, they are just that solid. Screaming Trees just does not get enough credit for doing something so well for so long in the genre (They were one of the original Grunge bands). And they also have an Iconic (if not relatively unknown outside the genre) in frontman in Mark Lanegan. Because I wrote a piece of this band recently, I will refer you to this link for a more comprehensive analysis on the band and keep this one brief.
In short though, these guys are the forgotten first(ish) born of Grunge. They aren’t as hard as the other groups but they offer just as much. I prefer their later work (early-mid 90s) but they really have a large catalog for a grunge band. One knock I may have on the band is I have trouble finding a many songs rising apart from the others. They don’t really have that 1 song that I need to listen to. They are the Mark Recchi of Grunge, time and volume doing something consistently good but nothing to make you really shout MVP. In that way this band flies under the radar but shouldn’t anymore!
Check out their Spotify Here. Essential Listening: “Bed of Roses”
#7. Mother Love Bone
Oh man, one of my biggest what if bands. I would’ve loved to hear what they could’ve come out with next; because I think they could’ve contended to belong with the top 3 here. To me this is the Arena Rock (or Hair Metal) Band of Grunge, you can really feel a lot of those elements in frontman Andrew Wood and the overall style of the band. Speaking of Andrew Wood, he was an amazing vocalist; even standing out in a genre which had many. His vocals almost got you dancing all the time. Unfortunately Wood OD’d days before the release of the first album and so they were only able to give us a glimpse of their potential with Apple.
Starting right away with “This is Shangrila” you get a little bit of everything from MLB. Right after that “Stardog Champion” just has a great build up to that Outro which just melds children singing on top of over a great repeated lick/riff. These guys could also groove no more apparent in “Bone China” and of course “Gentle Groove”; great head nodders. If I could return to Wood’s vocal attitude, lets highlight “Capricorn Sister” and “Come Bite The Apple”; the latter which probably has their best ending.
This was just their first (only) album; it is so refined and they really found their sound already. Listen to this album and then be sad they had to stop so abruptly.
Check out their Spotify Here. Essential Listening: “Come Bite the Apple”
#8. Candlebox
This one basically had one strong Grunge album and then quickly faded away with the rest of the genre (from a grunge perspective). There were a lot of good songs on the album but at the same time they do come off pretty repetitive. Still this is a grunge band that hails from Seattle that does not get the credit it deserves (especially within their own scene often disrespected by Seattle based critics at the time…) They got a really strong vocalist that fits in with the movement extremely well and the rhythm has that crude distorted sound you come to expect with a lot of Grunge. They even have a big hit with “Far Behind” which I am sure many of you have heard (and don’t sleep on that tone shift at the end of the song). “You” which was written right when they formed in the first day (which honestly impresses me when bands can do that) is a very solid track on the album as well. Really, most songs on that album are well worth the listen, but sadly they just couldn’t carry too much momentum into their future work; but they did enough to be signed by Madonna…
Check out their Spotify Here. Essential Listening: “You”
Honorable Mentions
Temple of the Dog
More of a side project than a grunge band, but this group/album is one you cannot miss. Vocalist on all but one song is Chris Cornell (and he is backing on the one where Eddie Vedder leads); you get some of the best vocals he had put out to date; in fact this may be a hot take but I’d say he adopted his signature vocal sound working this album and brought that to his future work (including Badmotorfinger). As a band/album though they are definitely much softer than Soundgarden though, belting out more ballads than bangers. It makes sense being that it was a tribute album to the recently deceased Andrew Wood (Chris Cornell put this project together with Wood’s former bandmates). While you may not be familiar with the band, you probably are familiar with the song “Hunger Strike” (with the aforementioned Vedder on vocals). While that is the most popular song on the album, the masterpiece for me is “Times of Trouble”. No joke this one contends for my favorite song of all time and I cannot believe it’s on a side project, to do this with people you don’t play with often is just astounding. That chorus gives me goose bumps. You also got several other great tracks on here, if you haven’t heard this album just go listen to it and thank me later.
Check out their Spotify Here. Essential Listening: “Times of Trouble”
Mad Season
The Grunge Supergroup (out of rehab), they put together a very solid album, but since it was more of 1 album thing, I wouldn’t label them quite a Grunge band. However while grunge supergroups weren’t exactly apparitions during the time, this line up is so impressive that it warrants an honorable mention. The fact that they met in rehab also adds to the lore. AIC Vocalist Layne Staley, Pearl Jam Guitarist Mike McCready, Screaming Trees Drummer Barrett Martin, and a bassist; it’s no wonder they put out some good tunes (those first two are amazing musicians especially). Call me crazy, I think you can hear the rehab influences too. Give “Long Gone Day”; “I’m Above”; and “River of Deceit” a listen for sure. I’m glad they collaborated together to release this singular grunge album.
Check out their Spotify Here. Essential Listening: “I’m Above”