Audioslave - Revelations

"In uncertain times, come pull the sheet over my eyes / You're trading lives for oil as if the whole world were blind," Chris Cornell croons over funk-drenched behemoth Wide Awake. A typically ambiguous lyricist for the most part, this is as overtly political as Cornell gets. Packing a direct and altogether more convincing punch than last year's 'Out of Exile', LP number three, 'Revelations', is more instantly agreeable as the sum of Audioslave's constituent parts.

Of those tracks on 'Revelations' that will set your inner fury alight in the way that only Tom Morello and co know how, the Led Zep-like beauty of Shape of Things to Come and the blindsiding bombastic perfection of Moth are enough to renew the interest of those who were waning. Moth in particular is unrelenting in its sludge rock chaos and symbolises another fleeting realisation of the full potential that has always lurked around such an intimidating meeting of talents.

The weaker elements are few, with Until We Fall sounding much too similar to I Am The Highway and Somedays playing like a piss-take soundtrack for a volleyball game on the set of Top Gun.

As spine-tingling an effort as 'Revelations' can be at times, the indestructible frame of reference that surrounds it just won't go away. Nothing quite touches the urgency of Zack De La Rocha spilling his manifesto over Morello's chords or Matt Cameron and Kim Thayill's ugly time signatures mustering an untameable storm behind Cornell's versatile vocal. Audioslave may never shake the shadow of those bands that came before, but try not to let it bother you.