Badmotorfinger is the third studio album by American rock band Soundgarden, released on September 24, 1991, through A&M Records. Soundgarden began the recording sessions for the album with new bassist Ben Shepherd in the spring of 1991. The album maintained the band's heavy metal sound while featuring an increased focus on songwriting as compared with the band's previous releases. AllMusic considered the album's music to be "surprisingly cerebral and arty"; alternative tunings and abnormal time signatures were present on several of the album's songs, and lyrics were intended to be ambiguous and create imagery.

The focus on the Seattle grunge scene helped bring attention to Badmotorfinger. The singles "Outshined" and "Rusty Cage" were able to find an audience in rock radio and MTV. Badmotorfinger became the band's highest charting album at the time on the Billboard 200. The band supported the album with tours of North America and Europe, including opening for Guns N' Roses on that band's Use Your Illusion Tour. In 1992, Badmotorfinger was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. The album was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1996.

Badmotorfinger was Soundgarden's first album with bassist Ben Shepherd, who joined the group in April 1990. Shepherd replaced previous bassist Jason Everman.  The album was recorded in the spring of 1991 at Studio D in Sausalito, California, Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, Washington, and A&M Studios in Los Angeles, California.  Soundgarden chose to work with producer Terry Date again as it had on its previous release Louder Than Love (1989). Frontman Chris Cornell said the band decided to work with Date again seeing as the band had a good relationship with him and did not want to go through the pressure of trying to find a new producer.

Cornell said that Shepherd brought a "fresh and creative" approach to the recording sessions, and the band as a whole said that his knowledge of music and writing skills redefined the band. Before joining, Soundgarden had been Shepherd's favorite band. Compared with Louder Than Love, the band took a more collaborative approach to the writing process.

Badmotorfinger has been classified by various critics as grunge, alternative metal,  heavy metal and hard rock. Steve Huey of AllMusic said that the songwriting on the album "takes a quantum leap in focus and consistency". He added, "It's surprisingly cerebral and arty music for a band courting mainstream metal audiences, but it attacks with scientific precision."  Guitarist Kim Thayil jokingly called it the "Heavy Metal White Album". Cornell said, "I think there's songs on the new record which are almost more commercially viable because they have that memorable feel to them, and I think if anyone expected us to come out and make something more commercial than Louder Than Love, then I'm glad that they were surprised." Cornell also added that the album was more representative of how the band was live. Shepherd contributed the song "Somewhere" and collaborated on the musical composition of several other songs on the album. Thayil said that Shepherd's contributions helped make the album "faster" and "weirder".

On the opening song, "Rusty Cage", Thayil uses a wah pedal as an audio filter, producing an unusual guitar sound. In describing the song's guitar riff he said that it "almost sounds backward".  Soundgarden utilized alternative tunings and odd time signatures on several of the album's songs. On "Rusty Cage", "Holy Water", and "Searching with My Good Eye Closed", the bottom E string is tuned down to B.  On "Mind Riot" every string is tuned to one of several E's.  Soundgarden's use of odd-meter time signatures was varied as well. Thayil said that he didn't "push for weird time signatures", but rather "push[ed] to get the quirkiness out of things".

Cornell said that he tried to not get too specific with his lyrics and was more interested in letting ambiguity "[create] colourful images."Thayil suggested that it is "like reading a novel [about] man's conflict with himself and society, or the government, or his family, or the economy, or anything." "Jesus Christ Pose" was written about famous people who exploit the symbol of Jesus' crucifixion as to suggest that they're persecuted by the public.  Cornell said that "Outshined" is about going from "periods of extreme self-confidence" to "plummeting in the opposite direction".  "Holy Water" was written about people who force their beliefs unto others. Thayil wrote the lyrics for "Room a Thousand Years Wide", and said that the song is about "experience in general".  "New Damage" subtly criticizes the right-wing government of the United States. Read more