as far as guitar records go, this is really near the top of the pile. and, it's near the top of the influence list, too. i remember listening to old bootlegs of cornell ribbing thayil a little about going into a "guitar trance". and, there's some real truth to it. there's a nice guitar trance in fell on black days, and another in superunknown.
i used to play along to a lot of grunge-ish records over '94-'96ish, before i started writing my own stuff. the two bands that were always the most fun were soundgarden and the smashing pumpkins. it wasn't so complex that you had to sit down and think about it, but it was acrobatic enough that you couldn't zone out in it, either. good middle point...
what i'm citing here is the guitar trance. it's a good 80% thayil, here.
(relevant tracks: why, first movement, and really whenever i lose myself on the guitar...)
