Songfacts®:

• This haunting song was recorded by Soundgarden with producer Jack Endino. Long associated with Seattle label Sub Pop and the grunge movement, Endino produced Soundgarden's debut EP Screaming Life back in 1987. He also worked on seminal albums from other Seattle bands such as Mudhoney and Nirvana.
• The song was first laid down during a 1986 session with Endino that got shelved. 28 years later the producer uncovered the cassette containing this and other demos and Soundgarden re-recorded the tune in May 2014. Endino recalled to Alternative Nation: "What was interesting was that Chris and Kim remembered it, but Ben and Matt had never played the song before so they had to learn it from scratch. Chris actually did the final vocals himself at his home studio and sent me the files, and they were all arranged and perfect, I just dropped them into our Pro Tools session and it was nailed."
• Guitarist Kim Thayil told Artist Direct the song has a history that precedes the band's recording career. "It was written before Matt joined the band. We used to play it live. When Matt joined the band, we had a flurry of new material coming out. It ended up being shelved because we had this new material we wanted to audition live and record. So, there were a couple of songs from a pre-Matt period he really loved and still wants to play and record to this day. 'The Storm' was one of them."