The Most Metal Songs by 11 Big Grunge Bands

We could have easily chosen "Jesus Christ Pose" from Badmotorfinger here, but wanted to shine some light on a bit of an outshined (ha) track instead.

"Birth Ritual" is a blistering song Soundgarden recorded for the Singles soundtrack (1992) and was later released on their Telephantasm compilation album.

The song is a blend of ferocious riffs, a visceral rhythm section, complexity and sky-high vocals. It doesn't get much more metal than that.

Of all of the grunge bands, Alice In Chains are surely one of the heaviest. That said, it wasn't easy picking one song. "Them Bones" and "Hate to Feel" are some of the others that came to mind, but there's something incredibly menacing about their third album Alice in Chains, particularly the song "Again."

The chugging rhythm and dark, layered vocals work to create a feeling of uneasiness. It's one of the band's most brooding songs and that says a lot considering the moodiness of their whole discography.

Buzz Osborne stands firm in his belief that Melvins are not a grunge band, but because they were such a pivotal part of the subgenre's development (like showing Kim Thayil drop tuning), we're including them. Plus, Melvins are surely one of the most metal groups on this list.

If there's one song to show someone how much metal inspired Melvins, it's "Honey Bucket" from the album Houdini. In classic Melvins style, it's chaotic and full of strange odd time signatures, but it's also fast compared to a lot of their other songs. It's essentially thrash, hardcore punk and sludge combined into a three-minute package.

Skin Yard's sonic output was incredibly diverse.

While their music tended to be experimental and on the eccentric side, Jack Endino's sludgy, distorted guitar playing gave it a metal edge.

"Slow Runner," in particular, is an explosive song with complex musicality and feral vocals. It's fast, doomy and downright disturbing. We'd also go as far as to say it's perfection.

Pearl Jam may not be as metal as Soundgarden or Alice In Chains, but they still had their moments of heaviness.

"Go," the opener on their sophomore record Vs. is packed with unrelenting energy and intense moments. Speed, aggression and power — that's metal enough for us.

Tad are easily one of the heaviest bands of all the ones on this list, maybe the heaviest. They drew a lot of influence from Melvins, but tapped into more of the metal elements than the eccentric and odd ones.

"Bullhorn," from their 1995 album Infrared Riding Hood, is an absolute punch in the gut. It delivers pummeling energy from the second it starts and has a thick, chugging riff that repeats throughout most of the three minutes. Tad Doyle snarls throughout the verses and then switches to a haunting melody in the choruses that's reminiscent of Alice In Chains.

Nirvana are most associated with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and their other radio-friendly Nevermind hits, but their sound on Bleach was vastly different. "Paper Cuts," from that album, is one of the sludgiest and most aggressive songs Nirvana ever put out.

The repetitive rhythm creates a bleak atmosphere while Kurt Cobain switches between murmuring and screaming. It's unsettling, untamed and unabashed. It's metal.

Gruntruck were another grunge group that leaned much heavier than others, so they had quite a few songs that could've fit here. "Crucifunkin'" from their debut album Inside Yours is essentially a groove metal song that's more similar to the likes of Pantera than their grunge contemporaries.

Like Pearl Jam and Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots generally don't come to mind when thinking about heavy metal. But their first album Core is home to some of their heaviest and deepest tracks, such as "Dead & Bloated" and "Crackerman."

We went with the former for this list because of the disturbing and graphic subject matter. Death is a commonly-covered topic in metal, especially in the extreme metal styles. STP don't align with extreme metal, sonically, but the dark atmosphere of the song and the distorted, hefty riffs nearly earn it the sludge metal label.

What Mudhoney lack in metal from a technical standpoint they make up for with attitude and grit. "Touch Me I'm Sick" sounds like chaos wrapped in a bow with fuzzy riffs, a ton of distortion and wild vocals. It captured the energy of Mudhoney's live shows, which were a monumental part of the early Seattle scene.

And speaking of the scene, the song was also one of the first singles released on Sub Pop Records, the label that had a huge hand in the beginning of the grunge scene. If helping kick off a genre isn't metal, we don't know what is.

Andrew Wood's pre-Mother Love Bone band Malfunkshun was more of a punk-glam rock fusion, but they let their metal influences come through from time to time, particularly on the Sogn "My Only Fan." It has a doomy, dark atmosphere complemented by thick, Sabbath-inspired riffs and screechy, high-pitched vocals.

Malfunkshun were a proto-grunge group and songs such as "My Only Fan" foreshadowed the brooding mood a lot of the later artists would create in their own music.