Soundgarden – King Animal
Back when heavy metal was hurtling towards new extremities in theatricality and brute force throughout the late 80s, Seattle quartet Soundgarden willingly strayed from the pack. With punk rock sensibilities, they rendered sleazy, led-heavy riffs with stuttering, unorthodox time signatures, psychedelic melodies and frontman Chris Cornell’s hair-raising shriek.
Refining the formula across several early releases on cult independents SST and Sub Pop, the band eventually graduated to MTV-conquering status with their second major label outing Badmotorfinger in 1991. It was a testament to their broad appeal that warring pop cultural ambassadors Axl Rose and Kurt Cobain both proudly announced themselves as fans. Fast forward six years, two more critically respected albums (boasting numerous legit international radio hits) and 10 million sales later, the band burned-out on the industry treadmill and called it a day while they were still reaching for their creative peak.
Too many trends in guitar music have come and gone since, but Soundgarden’s constituent parts found their way into its enduring fabric: bassist Ben Shepherd surfaced as an early participant in Josh Homme’s Desert Sessions and occasional member of Mark Lanegan’s band; lead guitarist Kim Thayil cooked up a short-lived supergroup with Jello Biafra and Krist Novoselic, later appearing on Sunn O))) and Boris’s two-headed drone masterpiece Altar; drummer Matt Cameron went on to play a brief part in an early incarnation of Queens of the Stone Age before finding a long-term home behind the kit for Pearl Jam.
Cornell meanwhile drifted from a promising but slow-starting solo career to forming Audioslave with three quarters of Rage Against the Machine, eventually reinventing himself as a Bond theme-singing, derriere-shaking Timbaland collaborator in the latter half of the noughties – consistently reminding nostalgists that to reprise his old band could be to soil what was in essence an enviable history. That is, until a low key club appearance by Shepherd, Thayil and Cameron (featuring
Now here we are. “Time is my friend till it ain’t,” Cornell croons over poignant single-in-the-making Bones of Birds, confidently staring down the detractors as he seeks to legitimize the seminal group’s reprisal – by now, you gather, a real hell freezing over moment – with their first full studio release since 1996’s Down on the Upside. Soundgarden come out swinging with lead track Been Away Too Long; like a punchier, compact reworking of Superunknown classic My Wave, they batter a 16 year sabbatical out of the way with a more direct approach than the cryptic lyrical standards of their last LP.
Stylistically varied from the outset, King Animal is loaded with reminders: firstly, that their collective songwriting strengths remain fascinatingly diverse; secondly, that Cornell’s voice has matured in the intervening period – flitting from a rich baritone to glimpses of the piercing caterwaul made famous by Gen-X staples like Outshined and Jesus Christ Pose.
Sceptics expecting to find a band struggling to match the power and weirdness of its career highs will be pleasantly surprised by the dark Americana at the heart of sprawling, bluesy monsters such as Taree and Blood on the Valley Floor, while unconventionally odd anthems-in-waiting like Bones of Birds and By Crooked Steps reiterate the band's enduring dynamism, rolled up in haunting, gratifying hooks that claw deeper into the psyche with every listen.
For all the album's triumphs, though, two tracks threaten to undermine an otherwise admirable return; Halfway There feels like an orphaned outtake – an acoustic-based middle of the road power ballad at odds with everything else here – and Attrition could be mistaken for a bored QOTSA dialling it in on valium. Still, there's a recurring sense that King Animal was about getting the old Mustang back out of the garage; if this is how Soundgarden kick the tires, just wait till they get that engine roaring.
Read our exclusive interview with Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil and Ben Shepherd here.