Badmotorfinger

Ben Shepherd replaced Jason Everman on bass in April 1990, and this third album was recorded with that line-up early in 1991. The sessions ran at Studio D in Sausalito, California, Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, Washington, and A&M Studios in Los Angeles, with Terry Date producing as he had on the previous record. Chris Cornell has said they stayed with Date because they had no wish to go through the pressure of finding somebody new. The writing was more collaborative than before, and alternative tunings and odd time signatures run through several songs. Guitarist Kim Thayil jokingly called the result the "Heavy Metal White Album". On the opening "Rusty Cage" he used a wah pedal as an audio filter rather than as an effect. The words are deliberately left unresolved, suggestive rather than explicit. It arrived as attention swung towards Seattle, and the singles "Outshined" and "Rusty Cage" were played widely on rock radio and MTV. The album reached number 39 on the Billboard 200, the band's highest placing at the time. The running order here is the American original's as printed.