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Down On The Upside
05/21/1998 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Sandy Masuo
After seven years refining their blend of metal fortitude and punk attitude, Soundgarden finally proved, with 1994's Superunknown, that they could burnish their roughshod music into songs that were somehow hard and gleaming and radio-friendly. Down On The Upside is as accessible as Superunknown and packs as much of a charge as anything they've done to date, yet it cuts a path through earthier territory that's only been glimpsed in side projects like Temple Of The Dog and Hater. "Burden In My Hand" finds the band toying with the same bluesy twang that fascinated the Rolling Stones while Chris Cornell supplants the history lesson of "Sympathy For The Devil" with a murder ballad motif á la Nick Cave. "Close your eyes and bow your head," Cornell implores after recounting his dastardly deed, "I need a little sympathy." Kim Thayil's guitar flourishes lend the burly lilt of "Pretty Noose" a lightly psychedelic feel, and there are even some interludes of richly textured brooding--"Boot Camp," "Blow Up The Outside World"--that are almost Floydian in nature. Mellow turns like "Zero Chance" and "Dusty" are as pretty as they are muscular while "Never The Machine Forever" and "Tighter & Tighter" are more familiar Soundgarden fare with riff-master Thayil twisting some barbed guitar lines into the massive grooves that bassist Ben Shepherd and drummer Matt Cameron churn out. "No Attention" and "Never Named" verge on hardcore, though Soundgarden's characteristic interlocking riffage and rhythm have always been too intricate for a proper one-two-one-two thrash. "Ty Cobb" takes the virtual hardcore premise and incorporates a mandolin for a kind of country-core effect. Though Down On The Upside boldly roams a wide and varied musical map, delving into elements that seem off the beaten track in the Soundgarden oeuvre, the band unflinchingly brings it all home.
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