VZ Magazine

Most know Nirvana to be the parents of the bastard child that became grunge music. The fusing of heavy guitars with methodical production with pop infused hooks and weighty lyrics became the signature of the group as they took the captain's chair of the early 90's rock music scene. There is a greatly overlooked piece to this puzzle as Kurt Cobain, after the success of Bleach and Nevermind, saw that his small garage band was taking shape into something, something he railed against in the early years of the group. Consistently Cobain pushed his favorite bands believing that he himself would never surpass their success. (Nirvana famously covered both The Meat Puppets and The Vaselines during their MTV Unplugged performance in 1993.)

In Utero, the third and final studio album from the group, was released in early September 1993 and attained moderate commercial success. The underlying terror of the album is the basis of the message expressed in this forty-four minute masterpiece. The simple fact is, Cobain and the band sought for the album to be a spit in the face of their fans, a desperate attempt to shed their undying admiration.

A lot has been passed and overlooked in the recent years of the recording business. As consumers, we seek out catchy, hook driven radio popularity. The art of creating an album has all been lost, with only a few diamonds in the rough shining through the waining sunlight. The genius of Nirvana, and the brilliance of In Utero specifically, is that a group of such mass popularity looked their audience square in the face and said, "thanks, but we're all set by ourselves".

For a change of pace, listen to the inner trappings of a man who just wanted to express what many of us share with a few of his friends. The album signifies a high water mark, where you can see the oceanic wave of thought and care that once made music great, and the point that it reached its height and rolled back into the depths of the darkness.