It took elements of heavy metal, hardcore punk and hard rock and brought them all together to create the powerful, sloppy, distorted sound of grunge.
While incredible bands like Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, and Soundgarden all had screeching vocals and rusty, heavy guitar, none of them were quite as raw or mean as Nirvana, especially with lead singer Kurt Cobain’s antics on and off stage.
All grunge bands have had their fair share of heavy material, but for now I’m going to focus on Nirvana’s mean sound by listing what I consider to be their top 10 heaviest songs.
Honorable Mention: Mrs. Butterworth – With The Lights Out
I’m going to limit my honorable mentions to just one here.
This is definitely one of their rawest rehearsal demos, but I’m not including it in the list because it has about 90 seconds of shit talk in it.
I understand it’s a popular saying in punk, but it personally takes me out of the song.
It’s still classy, but unfortunately it’s not going to be on the main list!
Smells like teenage spirit – never mind
No doubt all music snobs scoff at their latest brioche bun in smug disgust that I’d choose such a mainstream song for such a list, now that it’s popular to hate the song for being so overplayed and not representing the band properly…
Despite the gutted radio play, it’s easily one of their most accessible and heavy songs.
Every rock or metal bar I’ve been to goes insane (in the good sense) when it starts.
It’s loud, harsh and fearful; just like the band is.
9. School – Bleach
A potential favorite track of mine from their glorious back catalogue.
School is one of the best tracks on their stunning debut album, Bleach.
I could almost include the entire album as its own list, because as a full album they haven’t released anything quite as visceral since then.
The song consists of just 3 very short sentences repeated over and over at different intervals, but it is accompanied by one of their most satisfying riffs.
This is one of the slower songs on the list, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s blisteringly heavy.
It’s amazing that Kurt could still talk after recording these albums…7.
The second of the slower songs on the list, but even heavier than the above.
With a build up like a demented fairground ride, it opens into more raucous, agonizing screams that pierce your eardrums like a celestial blade.
Dale Crover, the Melvins drummer and close friend of Cobain, has added his remarkable drumming skills to this track, giving it the feel of a lost Melvins demo with Kurt singing instead of Buzz Osborne.
Dive headfirst back into Bleach’s rusty speed with another scream fest.
In retrospect, I think I could have just made a list of Kurt Cobain’s best screams…
but they more or less fit hand in hand with the heaviness of the tunes, so the circle is complete.
Always loved the fade in for this song, it sounds like you’re walking down a hallway into a classroom where it’s being played and it just gets louder and louder.
To me this is one of their more punk influenced songs, from the vocal style to the guitar breakdown midway through it just screams (literally) hardcore punk.
It’s fantastically used in the credits of Kurt Cobain’s great documentary, Cobain: Montage of Heck. teenager who only adds to the atmosphere.
4. Floyd The Barber – Bleach
It’s not often you have songs about the cast of a popular 1960s sitcom like The Andy Griffith Show, who raped and butchered a teen trapped in a barber’s chair. of mean brilliance.
Lyrically it’s possibly their best step towards heavy metal.3.
If you’ve ever wanted to see a train go full speed into your eardrum, now’s your chance.
One of their most tightly composed songs on their most tightly composed album, Breed opens up like machine gunfire through your speakers with Dave Grohl’s masterful, lightning fast drumming.
Anorexorcist – With the lights off
Now for the song that actually encouraged me to write this list.
It’s only been released as a live demo and it’s pretty rough in terms of quality, but the tone of the guitar and the weight of the riff is without a doubt one of the heaviest things Nirvana has ever done.
The vocals are a dead giveaway with Kurt’s signature incoherence.
Gilles de la Tourette – In the womb
Finally we reach the end of this earthquake of heavy grunge music.
I end with a number that might have been no.
2 if this style of singing was in Anorexorcist.
The beginning of the fantastic song, You Know You’re Right, Tourette’s teases the beginning of 95 seconds of musical and lyrical violence of the highest order.
Studded with Kurt’s most bloodcurdling shrieks like he’s trapped in a brutal bull and what looks like a tornado of roaring guitars, heavy bass and the fiercest of drums.
As well as providing the world with some of the best in cracking heavy music, they also have a load of more mellow and rock oriented music, all of them great.
They truly are a unique sound in grunge and it’s not for nothing that they’re considered some of the best in the genre.