Badmotorfinger

The release was delayed from September 24 over production problems. Ron St. Germain mixed and Howie Weinberg mastered. Scott Granlund played sax, Ernst Long trumpet and Damon Stewart narrated "Searching with My Good Eye Closed"; Thayil used a wah pedal as a filter on "Rusty Cage". Outtakes include "Birth Ritual" for the Singles soundtrack, "Black Rain" (finished in 2010) and "She's a Politician". It reached 39 on the Billboard 200 and in the UK, went double platinum, and earned a Grammy nomination for best metal performance.

Entertainment Weekly's Gina Arnold gave a B-plus, calling it stylishly bombastic rather than bludgeoningly bombastic; NME's Keith Cameron gave 8 out of 10, finding it stripped down, lithe and lethal; AllMusic gave 4.5 stars. Rolling Stone ranked it second in its 2019 list of 50 greatest grunge albums and Pitchfork included it in its 2022 list of the best grunge albums of the 1990s.