Superunknown - Release and Critical Reception

Release and Critical Reception

Superunknown was the band's breakout album. Upon its release in March 1994, Superunknown debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. The album granted Soundgarden international recognition. Superunknown has been certified five times platinum by the RIAA in the United States, three times platinum in Canada, and gold in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and the Netherlands the album has sold around 9 million copies worldwide. Superunknown spawned the EP Songs from the Superunknown and the CD-ROM Alive in the Superunknown, both released in 1995.

As well as being a commercial success, Superunknown was also a critical success. Allmusic staff writer Steve Huey gave the album five out of five stars, saying, "It's obvious that Superunknown was consciously styled as a masterwork, and it fulfills every ambition." Q gave the album five out of five stars. The review said, "Soundgarden dealt in unreconstructed heavy rock: a heavy guitar sound, depth-charge drumming....Yet Superunknown also includes more measured moments, such as the shimmering hit single 'Black Hole Sun'." Rolling Stone staff writer J.D. Considine gave Superunknown four out of five stars, but then changed their four star rating to a five star rating later on, saying Superunknown "demonstrates far greater range than many bands manage in an entire career." He also stated, "At its best, Superunknown offers a more harrowing depiction of alienation and despair than anything on In Utero." Considine criticized "Black Hole Sun" and "Half", stating that the former is "not a very good song" while the latter "is the virtual definition of a B-side." Jon Pareles of The New York Times said that "Superunknown actually tries to broaden its audience by breaking heavy-metal genre barriers that Soundgarden used to accept." He added that "Soundgarden...want something different from standard heavy metal."

David Browne of Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A. He said, "Soundgarden is pumped and primed on Superunknown, and they deliver the goods." He praised it as a "hard-rock milestone-a boiling vat of volcanic power, record-making smarts, and '90s anomie and anxiety that sets a new standard for anything called metal." Critic Robert Christgau gave the album an A-, saying that, although he had "mocked" Soundgarden's "conceptual pretentions for years," the album "is easily the best—most galvanizing, kinetic, sensational, catchy—Zep rip in history." Ann Powers of Blender said that on the album "guitarist Thayil helps create the stoner-rock template," and that it "stands as Soundgarden’s masterpiece."

Superunknown included the hit singles "Spoonman", "The Day I Tried to Live", "Black Hole Sun", "My Wave", and "Fell on Black Days", all of which had accompanying music videos. All five singles placed on the Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock charts. "Black Hole Sun" was the most successful song from Superunknown on the rock charts, spending a total of seven weeks at number one on the Mainstream Rock charts and reaching number two on the Modern Rock charts. "Black Hole Sun" was released in the summer of 1994 and became arguably the band's most recognizable and popular song. Its surreal music video received heavy airplay on music television. The video received the award for Best Metal/Hard Rock Video at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards and in 1995 it received the Clio Award for Alternative Music Video. At the 1995 Grammy Awards, Soundgarden won two awards; "Black Hole Sun" received the award for Best Hard Rock Performance and "Spoonman" received the award for Best Metal Performance. "Black Hole Sun" also received a nomination for Best Rock Song.

At the 1995 Grammy Awards, Superunknown received a nomination for Best Rock Album. In 2003, the album was ranked number 336 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In November 2011, it was ranked number five on Guitar World magazine's top ten list of guitar albums of 1994.