One just cannot escape Nirvana these days.

Lead singer and main songwriter Kurt Cobain’s journals recently have been published, a Nirvana compilation CD is in stores, Dave Grohl, the band’s drummer, now is fronting the successful Foo Fighters and Courtney Love, Cobain’s widow, just can’t seem to keep herself out of the tabloids – as if she wanted to.

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Even though Cobain committed suicide nine years ago, Nirvana is one of the few bands with an enduring and magnificent legacy. Emerging from Seattle’s so-called grunge scene, it changed the face of popular music in the early 1990s

“In Utero,” the band’s final studio album, is not necessarily a logical successor to “Nevermind,” the album that shot Cobain, Grohl and bassist Krist Novoselic into fame’s lethal spotlight. While “Nevermind” was polished and smooth, “In Utero” was raw and chaotic.

Its now famous opening lines encapsulate perfectly the feeling of the album (Teenage angst has paid off well/ Now I’m bored and old). Angst did not leave the band, but perhaps it transmuted to a darker form.

Cobain struggled with the fruits of fame. Throughout “In Utero,” he grovels and yells about pain and hypocrisy (I’m so tired I can’t sleep/ I’m a liar and a thief).

The best tracks are the originally controversial “Rape Me,” with passionate drums, distorted guitars and Cobain’s simple, dark lyrics and the album’s first song, “Serve the Servants,” with an ominous melody and engaging chorus.

The worst track is “Scentless Apprentice,” which gives into high-pitched screaming and punkish musical pandemonium.

No frills appear on “In Utero,” just no-nonsense woundingly honest rock. The album’s rough production could be a drawback for the faint-hearted, but the heavy riffs and pounding drums redeem any lack of processed sparkle. Abrasive but poignant, the album pulls you and spits you out and pulls you in again, leaving you with the final croon of “All Apologies” resounding in your ears (All in all is all we all are …).