Audioslave

There are some damn impressive combinations the human race have produced over the years. Coffee & Cigarettes, Henry & Bergkamp, Dark Side of the Moon & The Wizard of Oz. I will even go so far as to say I was pretty chuffed when Mork from Ork made a cameo appearance on Happy Days. But when you combine a singer from one of the best rock bands of all time and partner him up with musicians from possibly the most intense and dynamic bands ever to grace our ears, you get one hell of a sound.

Enter, Audioslave.

I was so excited [like most bogan 90’s rock fans were] when I heard that Chris Cornell, lead singer and guitarist from Soundgarden was teaming up with former band members of Rage Against the Machine [RATM] Tom Morello (lead guitar), Tim Commerford (bass/backing vocals), and Brad Wilk (drums). What I expected was something out of this world. What I got was something completely different…in a good way.

When I first heard their first single ‘Cochise’, I immediately had flashbacks to my Soundgarden loving days, simply because Cornell’s voice is so distinguishable. It really took me a couple of listens, but when that first guitar hits at 48 secs, they are truly the genius of Morello & Co and the tight…massive sound that we associate with RATM. It was like I was given Soundgarden all over again with a twist.

Their first album that dropped in 2002 which is self titled, has probably 6 tracks on it that will literally blow your fricken socks off. Some beautiful. Some powerful. Some both. But all of them produced impeccably with a familiar warmth usually reserved for bands you have known for 20 years….which in my books simply means that someone, somewhere made a genius suggestion in bringing these two groups of talent to create something amazing. I won’t say better than their original bands, coz that would just be stupid, but definitely amazing.

They then went on to produce two more studio albums in 2005 & 2006, both with their own flavour and tempo, but again, both with an unmistakable underlying tribute to the sounds that both previous bands had developed over many years. The two albums ‘Out of Exile’ and ‘Revelations’ were highly acclaimed…and quite rightly so. As far as rock albums go, they are immense in their sound and composition.

Compare them to most other rock albums and they would go straight to the top, but again, I hear so many comparisons to albums that are incomparable like Soundgarden’s ‘Badmotorfinger’ or ‘Superunkown’, not to mention ‘Rage Against the Machine’, ‘Evil Empire’ or ‘The Battle Of Los Angeles’. In this way, I don’t think longevity was ever going to be an option.

Breaking up over what Chris Cornell called ‘…Irresolvable personality conflicts as well as musical differences’, I think it is now well established that it was just usual rock band ego’s that were looking for different things via a level of drama that was not sustainable.

For what it’s worth, both Soundgarden and RATM have reformed since. Soundgarden have released ‘King Animal’ [ahhh, just a little bit awesome] but RATM have yet to show us anything. So, not a complete loss.

If you don’t know these guys, give them a listen. A couple of gems include ‘Like a Stone’, ‘Set It Off’, ‘Original Fire’ and ‘Revelations’. But I will leave you with my favourite track of theirs, ‘Show Me How To Live’. The riff in this track is of an epic nature. Old School. Big, bold and very very fat. [Goddam, is that new RATM album happening?

My favourite Audioslave album is their last. It has less hits. It’s maybe not as widely known as their first, but as a stand alone album, It’s awesome. Personally, I think it is a little more RATM than Soundgarden, but a couple of stand outs are ‘One and the Same’, ‘Sound of a Gun’ and ‘Shape Of Things To Come’. But the best track I think is the title track ‘Revelations’. It made a real impact on me when I first heard it. Like any kick arse track does when you first give it a going over. I know it’s good when I want to re-listen to it a couple of times before I even get to the rest of the album.

At this stage of proceedings, I would just like to say that even though Audioslave’s ‘Out of Exile’ isn’t my favourite album of theirs, it goes down as nearly my favourite album cover of all time.

Very often the art that is used on the cover on an album gets lost in the hoopla of the music, when in actual fact, there should be [there has probably been shitloads of them] gallery exhibitions of just album artwork. So much work gets put into the visuals that accompany music these days, and the cover to ‘Out of Exile’ is simply a photo, but as a designer there is so much to appreciate about the simplicity of this album art. But above all, it just comes across as a powerful image

The best part is that its not manufactured. Its nature at her best and probably a very apt cover for a band that solid, great hard rock music comes so naturally to. So as a parting gift to those who haven’t really had much experience with this epic make up of a supergroup, I want to leave you with a video you can check out that is off their first album.

‘Show Me How to Live’ was maybe their second or third  single off the album, but it wasn’t until the guitar riff that kicks in at around 40secs that I was done for. Absolutely suckered in by the melding of RATM’s fullness of sound along with the unmistakable tone of Chris Cornell’s voice. I wasn’t sure if I was listening to Rage or Soundgarden, but I didn’t much care. I just stood the fuck up, strapped on my air guitar and closed my eyes as the music took me somewhere else.

And as is always the way with great music, it still does the same thing to me today.

M/

~ Article updated May 2020