The Smashing Pumpkins’s first album Gish arrived at the forefront of the coming alternative rock and grunge movement, and like other acclaimed bands of the time, the Pumpkins pioneered the new sound and attitude shift from the currently mainstream ’80s heavy metal/glam scene.

The Pumpkins certainly know how to rock just as hard, and they benefit even more by knowing when not to rock so hard, and settle for more subtle moods and textured ballads. The first two opening tracks, “I Am One” and “Siva” rock as hard as anything the band has ever done, but even “Siva” shows off the band’s skillful sense of dynamics, switching between the heavy guitar assault and quieter, vocal-dominant verses.

The band is also fantastic at crafting beautiful melodies. The slower, heartfelt ballads such as “Rhinoceros” and “Crush” are arguably the most interesting tracks on this album, with the former being one of the most overlooked gems of ’90s alternative rock. Bassist D’Arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin are excellent at communicating the fragile emotion in these songs. Wretzky even delivers a lead vocal performance on the soothing closing track “Daydream” (probably showing Billy Corgan at his most modest in his entire career).

Surprisingly, for all their heavy metal influenced thick guitar riffs, the band’s best strengths come through when they show their restraint with these slower verses and songs. There are wonderful, lush, nearly psychedelic textures underneath every song on Gish, and Billy Corgan’s otherworldly vocals are a perfect match for these (though on the other hand, many may find his singing voice to be too abrasive).

But the production on Gish is very heavy-handed. To be expected, as hard rock was still dominating the music scene. This hurts the band more than it helps, however, as the album’s uncompromising heavy guitars sometimes undermine the subtle textures lying underneath.

Though The Smashing Pumpkins would go on to perfect their dynamics of heavy guitars and swooning melodies on their more popular follow-up albums, Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Gish still remains one of ’90s alternative rock’s better albums and shows off the interesting psychedelia textures the band would mostly abandon on the coming albums for a more direct sound.