Thrash may have their “Big 4,” but so does grunge, and they all were responsible for putting the Seattle sound on the scene in the early ’90s and dominating the music world for a little over half the decade. Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden all enjoyed their biggest successes in the ’90s and here we are ranking all of the albums of grunge’s “Big 4.”
Yes, Nirvana are widely credited with breaking grunge to the masses, though they along with Soundgarden and Alice in Chains all had albums released prior to the fall of ’91. Pearl Jam, meanwhile, formed after another Seattle favorite Mother Love Bone disbanded following the death of singer Andrew Wood and arrived just in time to catch the grunge wave of success with their debut album, Ten.
The collective works of all four bands helped pave the way for a rawer and often darker sound that permeated the early to mid ’90s, influencing a wealth of acts and flipping the music world on its ear. So join us as we take a closer look at the works of Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and how they stack up against each other below.
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