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“I’ve been away for too long,” howls Chris Cornell on the opener of their greatly anticipated comeback record. But Mr Cornell has never really gone anywhere.
Chris Cornell’s dallyings since the demise of Soundgarden in 1997 have been somewhat hit and miss. Alongside soundtracking 007 and teaming up to record three albums with the occasionally incredible supergroup Audioslave, there was also the ill-advised but hilarious Timbaland collaboration of 2009’s r&b car crash ‘Scream’ and a few other solo efforts.
He’s always been in view. However, whilst delighting some fans but confusing others, Cornell maintained that he was reluctant to reform Soundgarden in fear of ‘tarnishing their legacy’ – a which he himself referred to as “vital, creative and daring”.
So, where does ‘King Animal’ take us? After a spate of reunions and comebacks from the likes of Rage Against The Machine, Smashing Pumpkins and even Bush (yeah…even Bush) can Soundgarden stand shoulder to shoulder with their contemporaries once again and pick up where they left off without resorting to pale pantomime pastiches of their former glories?
From the off, the answer is a clear: “YEAH! KINDA…”
‘Non-State Actor’ is a textbook blistering beast while ‘A Thousand Days Before’ is a swirling psychedelic metal trip. Rolling into the rumbling ‘Blood on the Valley Floor and the brief-but-epic ‘Black Saturday’, it’s clear that the divisive ‘creative differences’ that first tore Cornell apart from guitar God Kim Thayil back in ’97 have been settled, and it sounds great to hear their collective harmonious noise-rock growl reunited once again.
The album holds no surprises and pushes few boundaries but still remains a treat, because it’s just pure Soundgarden.
‘Halfway There’ and ‘Worse Dreams’ have got all of those hallmark touches of the quiet-loud-quiet-loud approach that made great grunge so great in the first place, but then you remember that here’s a band that pre-date all the Seattle-sound copyists. This is THEIR sound – a world where Black Flag meets Black Sabbath and where MC5 meets Led Zeppelin.
They’re the Godfathers of grunge and they’ve been away for too long. Welcome back.
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