October 31, 1988 - Ultramega OK

A month after my last release and a mere three months since their last EP "Fopp", Soundgarden released their debut full-length album "Ultramega OK" on October 31, 1988. Soundgarden released their two EPs with the record label Sub Pop, but signed with new label SST for their debut. SST gave them producer Drew Canulette, but the band later said that he didn't understand their grunge style of music and actually negatively influenced the album. I'm sad to hear that they got stuck with a bad producer, but if it's anything like their EPs, then this should still be a good album. Let's check it out!

The album begins with "Flower" and some slow, trippy guitar by Kim Thayil opens the song. Matt Cameron comes in with a nice drum beat and Chris Cornell's voice sounds great even when he's just ooh-ing along to the music. It changes to a cool fast-paced, grunge-y main riff with solid contributions from everyone. They play a couple fast verses, then they return to the slower opening riff. Hiro Yamamoto plays some cool bass as they ramp back into the fast riff again and play a final quick verse to finish it. Up next is "All Your Lies" and it kicks right into a pretty fast main riff led by some cool guitar by Thayil and Cornell sounds good holding lots of long notes in the verse. The music slows down a lot in the chorus and it's a nice transition to a new riff that sounds quite heavy. The guitar falls away entirely as Cornell nicely sings a few lines, then the heavy guitar returns as they finish off this pretty cool chorus. It's another nice segue back to the main riff and after another verse and cool chorus, it's solo time. Thayil plays a short solo filled with a ton of notes as he does some sweet shredding! They play another fast verse, we hear another short but sweet solo from Thayil, and then it's a final chorus to end a pretty sweet song! Track 3 is called "665" and Cornell does some weird wailing (dyn-o-mite!) overtop dome dark and trippy music. Cameron plays a slow drumbeat and there's some very distorted guitars and bass. A strange but interesting minute-and-a-half song. Next up is "Beyond The Wheel" and a slow but epic guitar riff leads the way as Cornell sings in a great low voice. The slow rhythm section joins in and matches the gloomy feel of the song and we hear two Cornell's: the low voice and his regular much higher voice played at the same time. Sounds pretty dark and grunge-y! The low voice falls away after a verse or two but Cornell's high-pitched yells sound pretty great on their own. There's no chorus in this song as they continue to jam out the main riff the whole song. Thayil solos overtop the main riff after several verses and he does a fantastic job with lots of cool and fast guitar that takes us right to the end of the song. Track 5 is "667" and it's under one minute long, another strange interlude with Cornell yelling over a decent drumbeat by Cameron. You can hear someone laugh and say "cool" at the very end of the song. Up next is "Mood For Trouble" and it opens with some cool acoustic but quickly shifts into a more typical Soundgarden style. Yamamoto takes over the acoustic riff on bass and Thayil adds some fast electric guitar to form a cool main riff. They play a solid, long verse and eventually it breaks down nicely into a slower, more melodic part. Cornell nicely sings overtop the music as Thayil and Yamamoto both play some pretty cool stuff. They jam this part out for a bit, then they return to the faster, heavier part. After another long verse we hear another slower part with more great bass by Yamamoto that brings us full circle. Speaking of circle, the next song is called "Circle Of Power" and it's another short song at just over two minutes, Thayil plays another fast and cool guitar riff while Cornell quickly sings along and Cameron plays some nice fast drums as well. Things get quiet and we hear Cornell say quickly "Ol' big bad ass circle of power's comin' to getcha!" followed by a cool solo by Thayil. Then it's a final verse with Cornell sounding very strange to finish off another odd song. Track 8 is "He Didn't" and Thayil plays a cool eastern-sounding guitar riff that leads the way and Yamamoto and Cameron form a fast rhythm section to match. Cornell eventually comes in to complete this interesting main riff and they jam out a couple cool verses and then Thayil goes off on a bit of a weird solo. He plays some slow guitar and it's very offbeat and not in time with everything else, making for a different but interesting solo. It leads right back into the main riff and they jam out one final verse to end another short song. The next song is "Smokestack Lightning" and it's a Howlin' Wolf cover. Thayil leads the way with a slow but pretty cool guitar riff and Cornell sings slowly along to match the mood. The pace is much slower than most of their songs, but Soundgarden show they can do cool fast and slow songs. They slowly jam out this main riff for a good while with Cornell getting louder and yelling more as the song goes on. Thayil eventually plays a solo overtop the main riff and he does a great job of ebbing and flowing with the song as he plays a pretty good little solo. The main riff never stops throughout this whole song as they jam it out until the end as we hear Cornell yell really high a few times! He can really get up there in the octaves! Track 10 is "Nazi Driver" and it starts with a fast rhythm section with cool bass and drums and Thayil plays some epic guitar overtop. Cornell sings nicely along and the second half of the verse is much louder and heavier and sounds pretty good. They continue to play the cool quiet-to-loud main riff and eventually reach a chorus with some nice high guitar from Thayil. The chorus is a bit slower but it breaks up the song nicely before returning to the main riff. After another long verse and short chorus they begin another verse but abruptly end the song before we reach the heavier part again. The next song is another short one called "Head Injury" and they kick right into a fast-paced main riff with some nice stop-and-start guitar from Thayil. Cornell sings low at first but changes to his usual great high voice as these guys sound like they're enjoying all these short grunge-y songs, and so am I! They roll right through several quick verses of this, then they play one verse that's really quiet and it makes things sound even better when they come roaring in to resume the main riff. At the end of the song Cornell is just screaming "head!" and I love the visceral energy of him just screaming his head off, a cool way to end another cool short song. Track 12 is the longest on the album, called "Incessant Mace" and it's got a nice slow and grunge-y main riff with some cool low bass by Yamamoto and some great dark-sounding guitar by Thayil. Cornell sings perfectly overtop as he holds lots of long, slow notes to match the mood. After the first verse ends Thayil takes off for a guitar solo and he just starts shredding it! He plays some really awesome stuff and his speedy shredding sounds amazing overtop the slow and dark main riff. The end of the solo leads perfectly back into the main riff and after they slowly make their way through another verse, Cornell switches from singing the name of the song to yelling it as things devolve nicely into another epic solo. This one isn't as fast, but Thayil still does a fantastic job playing all the right notes in yet another sweet guitar solo. During the final verse all the instruments stop when Cornell is singing, and when he stops they come thundering back in as they manage to make this slow main riff sound even heavier! They jam through a final long verse and end the song with a third guitar solo as Thayil shreds it one last time and Cornell continues to belt out the name of the song. A wonderful way to end what's easily my favourite song on the album! The final song on the album is called "One Minute Of Silence" and it's actually a John Lennon cover, althiigh it's not complete silence. Faint talking can be heard and a guitar amp goes on and off at one point. It's a bit of an odd way to end a pretty good album.

That is the end of "Ultramega OK" and I thought it was a really great debut full-length album from Soundgarden. Their two EPs showed what style they play and showed off a bit of their skills, but this 13-song effort I thought was really cool the whole way through. Whether they were playing fast or slow, a short or a long song, these guys brought it every time and I love this heavy, grunge-y style of music they play. And all this with a producer who apparently didn't understand them! I hope that means that there are even better things to come! This also happens to be my final release of the year and so begins the year-end wrap-up! Only five full albums (and one EP) this year is a bit of a drop, but all of them were pretty solid!

Favourite song of the year: There are several contenders as usual for song of the year, but all of them come off the same album! With an honourable mention to "Dyers Eve" I think the best song of the year has to be "One". It's such a complete and awesome song!

Top 3 Albums of the Year

1. ...And Justice For All by Metallica
2. South Of Heaven by Slayer
3. Ultramega OK by Soundgarden

Metallica and Slayer continue to make excellent thrash metal albums and I don't think it's the only time we'll see Soundgarden in the rankings either! Only 1 more year left in this dreadful decade, see you in '89!