Stone Temple Pilots – Core (1992)

I grew up with grunge, but I was a bit too young to really appreciate the full range of the genre back then. I pretty much just listened to Nirvana like everyone else. I do remember a few hit songs from other bands of the time, but I never really listened to them properly. A couple of years ago everyone started talking about 90's coming back and if people we're going to be logical about it, grunge would be the first thing to make a return. That didn't really happen, but personally I had a shortlived grunge revival phase, where I listened to a lot of grunge and now I also discovered fully what bands like Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees or Soundgarden were all about. Of these, Pearl Jam really hit hard for me, especially their first two albums. But also, I really enjoyed this debut album of Stone Temple Pilots.



Stone Temple Pilots was probably the most well-known grunge band that wasn't from Seattle. Stone Temple Pilots were from San Diego, California, where I had the pleasure to visit a couple of years ago. The sounds of the band are quite heavy compared to many other grunge bands of the time. Some people even go as far as to call them heavy metal. But really they're just a prime example of the grunge sound of the early 90's. Stylistically, they're probably closest to Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. Like in pretty much all the other grunge bands, here as well, the vocals are really raspy and strong. The guitars play rough and heavy riffs with bass mostly providing rhythm rather than melody.

The album starts with a muffled yells that start the song Dead & Bloated. Straight from the beginning it's clear that this band is quite heavy and the guitar riffs play a central role in their sound. However, by the time we get to the chorus, we see that there is also a great sense of melody in the songs. Sex Type Thing really explodes into full force right from the beginning. I really like the rough guitar sounds. This would've been excellent song to jump to live when I was a bit younger. Wicked Garden sets a slightly lighter mood by its intro that seems to tip its hat to old rock n' roll. When the song gets going though, we return to heavier riffs. No Memory is a quiet intermission instrumental song with clean guitars and fretless bass. It calms the mood down nicely before we get into the song Sin, which has probably the most trash metal style riffs. This song is over six minutes long which allows a bit more playfulness. Some of the acoustic parts almost sound like Led Zeppelin. Naked Sunday picks up the fast beats again and the vocals sound violent through muffled effects. There's something quite industrial in the sounds. Creep is a mostly acoustic song that actually sounds almost like a whole different band. These kinds of slower songs are necessary to calm things down in otherwise heavy and raw albums. After being a bit more relaxed, the band can again go into full power heavy sounds in the song Piece of Pie. There is some amazing growling in this song. Next up is the biggest hit of the band ever, Plush. This song played over and over on MTV when I was about 10 years old and I even if I didn't really know Stone Temple Pilots that well back then, I probably could've sung most of the song along. It's no wonder this song was the hit, since it seems to be the perfect union of guitar riffs and melodies. Wet My Bed is a strange intermission song with spoken word delirium and some psychedelic guitar sounds. Crackerman picks up the high tempo again and shows just how tight this band can be with their guitars. The album ends with a slower stoner rock style grunge song Where the River Goes.

I already mentioned watching the music video for Plush over and over again on MTV, which is why it's the natural choice to post here. It's a very classic 90's music video with distorted picture of the band playing against varying backgrounds. The colours keep changing quite a lot as well.

Grunge is a funny genre for me in a sense that I sometimes can't be bothered to listen to it at all, but sometimes I get really excited about it. A couple of years ago when I had my grunge revival phase I bought quite a few of the essential grunge classics including this one and I really haven't regretted it. These albums were a big part of my early childhood and now my relationship with them has deepened even further.

Listen to the album on Spotify.