Badmotorfinger

Okay, they are a metal band, there is no questioning that... seriously, go listen to that speed metal riffage in Rusty Cage, giving way to a Sabbath-like face-fuck-with-a-splatter-of-brains. That said, it's not particularly good. It's just not all that memorable, because the grunge tendencies do kinda come on strong at times, and grunge was, unfortunately, sometimes about being anti-musical. Yes, so was punk, but at least punk was somewhat catchy. Don't ask me how or why, but the Sex Pistols were a fun band. Nirvana was not. They died too fucking hard in their angst and their desire to be taken seriously.

And Soundgarden borrowed from that ideal sometimes - songs like Searching With my Good Eye Shut and New Damage for example... just boring, plodding, bad rock and roll without the rock and/or the roll. Motorhead this isn't. Again, the early 90s were a reversion against the excesses of the 80s - the anti-rock-and-roll movement, and it still goes on with the anti-musical "I suck, therefore I deserve respect" bullshit of mallcore, which is of course taken DIRECTLY from Kurt Cobain's fucking "oh well, whatever nevermind", which is sentence of death for society, I am completely sure of it.

That said... Jesus Christ Pose is a GREAT fucking song. I mean fucking legendary. It's hypnotic, it's evil, it's heavy fucking metal. Also, the aforementioned Rusty Cage. But that's really about it. The "backwash" of this album... the stuff that they don't play on the radio, there isn't much to it. There isn't any hidden gem here like on Superunknown (4th of July, which the radio wouldn't dare touch). I suppose Outshined is pretty good, and Drawing Flies has its moments (okay, this one ALMOST is Motorhead... almost... sort of), but ...

It's not a HORRIBLE album, and I'd rather listen to it than to In Flames, but that ain't saying much I'm afraid. But if you're looking for an early 90s popular rock band, try The Offspring instead. At least they were fun.