Alice in Chains or Soundgarden?

[Chip Z'Hoy]

Two grunge titans, but if you said "They're just metal bands," I'd agree. Metal bands in jorts, that's all.

Now you may be tempted to say "The correct answer is MUDHONEY!!" and I'd agree with that too. But for now, just these two. We'll work on Mudhoney later.

[Chip Z'Hoy]

My vote: Alice in Chains. I tend to favor the more direct approach.

HOWEVER, Badmotorfinger is killer start to finish. Don't connect as much to the rest of the catalog though.

[dmbrocker]

As good as Soundgarden is, AIC wins this one easily on the strength of Dirt alone. That album is 100% killer, no filler.

[pieceofme]

Neither.

Well, I guess I can tolerate parts of some AIC songs.

[Dyslexicheart]

Love both, saw them both multiple times in the early 90's, including the company I worked for producing AIC on a Dirt tour club show. Soundgarden wins this because they're a little more interesting rather than straight-forward metal. AIC loses a point for blowing out my left ear during soundcheck.

[LAglamrocker]

Jesus Christ Pose is best grunge video ever
Cornell sang this live when I saw band in 1992 with his shirt off and long hair . Good time 700 people in 1600 venue
Still have 2 mint condition tour shirts from Soundgarden- they seem to be worth 2800 for both- got Monster Magnet shirt also

Few months later Adrenalize tour in the round for 9500

[Psychobolia.com]

I happened to be listening to Check my Brain when I clicked on this thread...not that this would change my vote, AIC for the glorious win!

[skinni]

AIC

[MetalSludgeCEO]

AIC all day...

They were more Rock and Metal than the others from the era.

As for SG... Chris was clearly the stand-out vocalist, over the rest of Seattle & the rest of the 90's Grunge bands by a mile... but their songs were nowhere near as good.

There was A LOT of money poured into SG, and they didn't sell anywhere near what Pearl Jam, Nirvana or AIC sold.

Even the Smashing Pumpkins (Chicago) and Stone Temple Pilots (More LA and SD) outsold SG.

$tEvil

[Hellsinkey]

I like both, but still AIC by far.

[CrankerBait]

As good as Soundgarden is, AIC wins this one easily on the strength of Dirt alone. That album is 100% killer, no filler.

This.

[metalslayer]

AIC all day...

They were more Rock and Metal than the others from the era.

As for SG... Chris was clearly the stand-out vocalist, over the rest of Seattle & the rest of the 90's Grunge bands by a mile... but their songs were nowhere near as good.

There was A LOT of money poured into SG, and they didn't sell anywhere near what Pearl Jam, Nirvana or AIC sold.

Even the Smashing Pumpkins (Chicago) and Stone Temple Pilots (More LA and SD) outsold SG.

$tEvil

Man I respect your opinion, but I thought Soundgarden was huge at the time….obviously Cornell was a great vocalist… maybe I was fooled by being a kid at the time and assuming they were huge

[veritas]

Like them both -- don't love them.

But I go with Soundgarden because I love Chris Cornell's voice and the songs feel a little less "samey" than AIC, although, in truth, AIC probably has more variety in songs.
Anyway, I stick with Soundgarden.

[veritas]

AIC all day...

They were more Rock and Metal than the others from the era.

As for SG... Chris was clearly the stand-out vocalist, over the rest of Seattle & the rest of the 90's Grunge bands by a mile... but their songs were nowhere near as good.

There was A LOT of money poured into SG, and they didn't sell anywhere near what Pearl Jam, Nirvana or AIC sold.

Even the Smashing Pumpkins (Chicago) and Stone Temple Pilots (More LA and SD) outsold SG.

$tEvil

Man I respect your opinion, but I thought Soundgarden was huge at the time….obviously Cornell was a great vocalist… maybe I was fooled by being a kid at the time and assuming they were huge

Well, it was a little more nuanced at the time and our beloved CEO is not fully correct. When Superunknown came out in 1994, it WAS a huge (hit No. 1, sold 310,000 copies 1st week) and Soundgarden where "bigger" than AIC for that brief 1994 window. Soundgarden had the benefit of a releasing its key album at the peak of grunge (Dirt came out in 1992). Superunknown has still outsold Dirt. But AIC was a slower burn and proved to be the bigger band -- but it was, at best, neck and neck in 1994/95.

[DangerZone]

AIC laps Soundgarden

[Van Ailin']

Alice In Chains. I really like both groups, but Layne was the better singer (when still "with it" enough to do it). Cornell had more range and was warmer on acoustic stuff. Probably was the technically better singer, but I could find him a little "screechy," too. And not all their songs would score for me. I love parts of each album but can discard half or more of the albums. With AIC,l I would tend to like most of it, even in their later years. The last two songs were strong, too.

Wouldn't want to be wihout either, really.

[Charles Bukaki]

I'm a fan of both but it's Alice over Soundgarden all day every day. It's not even close. AIC's music, even the post Layne stuff and Jerry Cantrell's solo albums still hit me like a sledgehammer. Soundgarden is (was) great and both bands outshined (bad pun intended) their other Big 4 comrades and I know the charts and 35 years of music journalism won't agree with me but I'll take Would?, Man In The Box, Rooster, Rusty Cage, or Burden In My Hand over Come As You Are, Teen Spirit, or anything Pearl Jam ever released.

[HottKarl777]

Yeah I would go with Alice but it's not so cut and dried. Black Hole Sun is a MASTERPIECE on every level compositionally. It's fucking brilliant and completely original, harmonically. He created his own musical universe on that one. God level songwriting.

[Gibsonite]

Yeah I would go with Alice but it's not so cut and dried. Black Hole Sun is a MASTERPIECE on every level compositionally. It's fucking brilliant and completely original, harmonically. He created his own musical universe on that one. God level songwriting.

Great song despite having one of the worst guitar solos ever put to tape

[eddie lee roth]

I vote for Soundgarden. To my ears at least I thought they brought a little different variety of songs.

[veritas]

I'm a fan of both but it's Alice over Soundgarden all day every day. It's not even close. AIC's music, even the post Layne stuff and Jerry Cantrell's solo albums still hit me like a sledgehammer. Soundgarden is (was) great and both bands outshined (bad pun intended) their other Big 4 comrades and I know the charts and 35 years of music journalism won't agree with me but I'll take Would?, Man In The Box, Rooster, Rusty Cage, or Burden In My Hand over Come As You Are, Teen Spirit, or anything Pearl Jam ever released.

I know this will derail things, but I still take Nirvana over any of the grunge bands. For obvious reasons.

[Demons Eye]

I’m a fan of both bands and agree that "dirt" is a killer album, but I like soundgarden a bit more overall… to me, more going on in their albums, but that’s just my opinion. both great bands.

[Tommy]

This is like picking a favorite kid.

[Indy_Rob]

AIC by a long shot.

I never liked Soundgarden and I especially disliked Cornell's voice.

[murdercitydevil08]

Going with Wikipedia...Both Soundgarden and Alice in Chains sold 30 million world wide...

Soundgarden having the biggest selling album in Superunknown at 6 million...

Soundgarden pioneer of grunge music as Alice in Chains were Hair clown Band...

[pieceofme]

I'm a fan of both but it's Alice over Soundgarden all day every day. It's not even close. AIC's music, even the post Layne stuff and Jerry Cantrell's solo albums still hit me like a sledgehammer. Soundgarden is (was) great and both bands outshined (bad pun intended) their other Big 4 comrades and I know the charts and 35 years of music journalism won't agree with me but I'll take Would?, Man In The Box, Rooster, Rusty Cage, or Burden In My Hand over Come As You Are, Teen Spirit, or anything Pearl Jam ever released.

I know this will derail things, but I still take Nirvana over any of the grunge bands. For obvious reasons.

Yeah agreed, because they are so much better.

[Wiseacre]

Nirvana

AiC
Pearl Jam
Soundgarden

[Wiseacre]

I'm a fan of both but it's Alice over Soundgarden all day every day. It's not even close. AIC's music, even the post Layne stuff and Jerry Cantrell's solo albums still hit me like a sledgehammer. Soundgarden is (was) great and both bands outshined (bad pun intended) their other Big 4 comrades and I know the charts and 35 years of music journalism won't agree with me but I'll take Would?, Man In The Box, Rooster, Rusty Cage, or Burden In My Hand over Come As You Are, Teen Spirit, or anything Pearl Jam ever released.

I know this will derail things, but I still take Nirvana over any of the grunge bands. For obvious reasons.

Yup

[Sleek]

Soundgarden was the only grunge band that I much liked...probably because they went hard on Sabbath and didn't have some baritone junkie singing.

AIC was good, but just didn't do it for me. I bought Dirt, listened to it once and put it away. I thought it was brilliant, but it was SUCH a fucking downer it was basically depression porn, and homey ain't got time for that.

I could not have been less surprised when all of the grunge singers started popping up dead.

[EvilRockPosh]

AIC all day...

They were more Rock and Metal than the others from the era.

As for SG... Chris was clearly the stand-out vocalist, over the rest of Seattle & the rest of the 90's Grunge bands by a mile... but their songs were nowhere near as good.

There was A LOT of money poured into SG, and they didn't sell anywhere near what Pearl Jam, Nirvana or AIC sold.

Even the Smashing Pumpkins (Chicago) and Stone Temple Pilots (More LA and SD) outsold SG.

$tEvil

Superunknown = certified 6 x platinum in the US
Dirt - certified 5 x platinum in the US