May 2026 - Riffology

Physical Graffiti by Led Zeppelin – The Complete Story | Riffology 4291_album_art

Physical Graffiti by Led Zeppelin – The Complete Story | Riffology

Neil Johnson 4 May 2026

On 24 February 1975, the biggest rock band on the planet finally pulled the velvet curtain back....

Podcast Episodes

Riffology: Iconic Rock Albums Podcast

Remember when payday meant choosing which CD or vinyl you were blowing it on? Standing in HMV doing the mental maths, convincing yourself two albums was basically essential. Riffology is Neil and Chris chasing that feeling again, one classic record at a time.

This is a show about the albums that raised us —
Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Motley Crue, Def Leppard,
Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Pink Floyd, Radiohead,
Skunk Anansie, Gojira, Soulfly and the rest.
If it’s 25+ years old, loud and iconic, we’re in.

Each episode is two Gen X mates diving into studio sessions, producer chaos and band drama plus the joy of taped-over cassettes, dodgy car stereos and sitting on the floor with a record sleeve.

We nerd out when we should: Albini vs Vig, room-miked vs close-miked,
Neve consoles, dynamic-range disasters and those “how did this get approved?” moments.

If you grew up when albums were events, this is your place. Some weeks it’s an old favourite; other weeks it’s something you abandoned in ’94. Either way, Riffology’s here to talk rubbish, tell stories and remind you why these records mattered.

When the Seattle Elder Statesmen Finally Get Their Due

Hosts: Neil & Chris
Duration: ~101 minutes
Release: Not scheduled

Episode Description

This week Neil and Chris dig deep into what Chris calls, without hesitation, one of the greatest albums ever made. Soundgarden’s 1994 masterpiece Superunknown gets the full Riffology treatment, and the verdict is emphatic. Released on 8th March 1994, the album debuted at number one, knocked Pink Floyd’s Division Bell off the top spot, and sold nearly 10 million copies despite being, as both hosts agree, genuinely difficult to categorise.

Neil came to Soundgarden late, arriving via Chris Cornell’s solo work before a friend finally sat him down with the right tracks. Chris grew up with the singles first before discovering the deeper cuts later, and both agree the album rewards that second, third, and fourth listen in ways that most rock records simply do not. Recorded at Bad Animals Studio in Seattle on a Neve desk, produced by the relentless New York-based Michael Beinhorn, this is a record that sounds like nothing else from its era.

What You’ll Hear:

Why Superunknown feels closer to Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath than to Nirvana, despite the grunge label
The five singles and what each one meant commercially and creatively, including the Grammy wins for Spoonman and Black Hole Sun
How the album’s sequencing, tempo shifts, and unusual time signatures work together as a deliberate, carefully constructed journey
The New York producer theory, and why Beinhorn’s outsider perspective may explain the album’s distinctive tone
The connection between Superunknown and Audioslave’s debut, and which one Neil might actually prefer

Featured Tracks and Analysis:

The Day I Tried to Live earns the biggest praise of the episode, with Chris calling it simply the best song ever written and announcing plans to learn it. Black Hole Sun gets a full breakdown including the single-string slide guitar cheat, the Beatles-influenced fifth-interval vocal harmony, and Cornell’s own admission that the lyrics mean absolutely nothing. Fourth of July closes the episode and both hosts agree it is among the heaviest things Soundgarden ever recorded, drop C tuning, Black Sabbath energy, and all.

Tangential Gold:

Neil washes his car and his fitness tracker congratulates him on a surfing session
Chris recounts the pyrotechnics story from a Silverstone party gig where he told the effects crew “all of it”
Neil’s experience photographing the final Slayer tour and nearly losing his eyebrows to stage pyro
A detour into the Aliens TV series and whether modern baddies are scary enough to cause cold sweats at 3am
Neil discovers the Soundgarden sculpture in Seattle, which he had visited many times without ever connecting it to the band name

Why This Matters:

Superunknown arrived five weeks before Kurt Cobain’s death, in a moment when the Seattle scene was simultaneously at its peak and beginning to fracture. The album outlasted the era that produced it precisely because it never fully belonged to that era. Neil and Chris make a compelling case that this is a record built to be discovered across decades, not consumed in a single sitting.

Perfect for: Fans of intelligent, sprawling rock records who want to go beyond the singles, anyone curious about what grunge actually sounded like when the musicians involved had been playing together for a decade, and anyone who has ever told the pyrotechnics crew “all of it.”