What are the best grunge bands? To some, it’s an obvious list spanning the “Big 4” — Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains — while others could take hours to narrow it down. The genre stretched across the Pacific Northwest in the ’90s, but Seattle became its home base, with Sub Pop marketing the city’s sound to great effect — helping bands travel up from the underground and explode into the mainstream. Though its decline was largely tied to Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994, as well as the rise of pop punk and nü metal in the second half of the decade, plenty of bands still reference it — from Superheaven to Narrow Head to Mannequin Pussy. With this in mind, we asked our readers to name off the best grunge bands. We tallied the votes, and you can find the top fan picks ranked below.
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5. Silverchair
Grunge became so popular that it reached all the way over to Australia. There, a trio of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Sabbath-obsessed teenagers turned their worship into a bulletproof debut album, 1995’s Frogstomp, which arrived in the aftermath of Cobain’s death and pulled heavily from his vocal style. Silverchair got some flak for the latter, though 1997’s Freak Show proved that they weren’t a tribute band, maturing into their own darker style that produced hits like “Freak” and “Abuse Me.” No matter how you feel about the term “post-grunge,” their influence remains so big that fans are still asking for the original lineup to reunite.
4. Soundgarden
By the time Soundgarden released their third album, 1991’s Badmotorfinger, grunge had outgrown the Pacific Northwest, expanding into the mainstream at a feverish speed. Suddenly, everyone wanted to wear flannel shirts, Doc Martens, and ripped denim. Soundgarden stood at the forefront, continuing to refine their brew of Sabbath/Zeppelin/Stooges heaviness, punctuated by Chris Cornell’s inimitable howls. It led to nonstop touring, including opening for Guns N’ Roses and Neil Young, contributing to the Singles movie soundtrack, and MTV appearances until they eventually burned themselves out, calling it quits in 1997.
3. Mudhoney
Mudhoney provided a blueprint for grunge that tons of bands referenced, combining the raw energy of punk with sludgy, blown-out guitar gleaned from ’70s metal and garage rock. Their lawless, fuzz-heavy sound and anti-establishment attitude, famous among Generation X, played a major part in the Pacific Northwest underground in the late ’80s, notably through their 1988 single “Touch Me I’m Sick.” The band used the Big Muff pedal to create a massively noisy tone — hence the name of their debut Superfuzz Bigmuff EP. Between vocalist-guitarist Mark Arm’s Iggy Pop wails and guitarist Steve Turner’s wah-wah pedal abuse, early grunge owes a lot to their aggressive sound.
2. Nirvana
Though it’s been played to death at this point, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” introduced grunge to the mainstream — and its explosive success signaled everything to come. Nevermind turned the rough edges of 1989’s Bleach into melodic punk hooks, steeped in pop sensibility without losing the aggressiveness that lived at the very root of their band. From there, they went supernova — so much so that they got accusations of killing the scene that they came from. Their own legend outweighed the negativity, though, from their performance at 1992’s Reading Festival to Cobain wearing a dress on Headbangers Ball to, of course, their 1993 Unplugged show.
1. Alice in Chains
Considered one of grunge’s “Big 4,” it makes complete sense that Alice in Chains would top this list. 1990’s Facelift made them stars, turning their dark, metallic sound into powerhouse anthems, but it was their follow-up, 1992’s Dirt, that became their masterpiece. They perfected a balance between the Seattle sound and their doomier Sabbath impulses, with Layne Staley’s frank stories of addiction, depression, and despair contrasting the heaviness with gut-wrenching emotion. Yet for all of their heft, they were also capable of beautiful, acoustic-leaning ventures with their Sap and Jar of Flies EPs — as well as their 1996 MTV Unplugged appearance, which celebrated its 20th anniversary earlier this week.
