When Soundgarden's "Louder Than Love" hit our shelves in September, '89, I popped the promo into the store's player and by the end of the second song, "Hands All Over," I was all in. Over the next few years, I had declared Chris Cornell to be the second coming of Ian Gillan and the band to be one of the best around in heavy metal at the time, which was not their perceived genre since they rode the Grunge wave out of Seattle. A short eight years pass and it was all over. There were three more tremendous albums released in that span. Cornell goes solo, then starts Audioslave, then back to solo. Drummer Matt Cameron ends up in Pearl Jam (too bad they didn't have a real vocalist like Cornell). Guitarist Kim Thayil and his heavy, inventive style basically goes AWOL, and bassist Ben Shepherd essentially ends up broke. How they all decided to get back together a couple of years ago doesn't matter, the fact they did was all that I cared. Many speculated that it was all about the money, cashing in on their influence. I'll admit the rumors had me wary, and then I read several negative initial reviews. A month later I finally sit down to decide for myself, hitting up the sampler page of my favorite music site. One minute each of the first four songs was all I needed... "add to cart."
Exactly...they've been away too long. The Chris Cornell I once praised is back in full squall. Those first four tracks I mentioned...so much heaviness in four minutes! This is a professional, precise and complex rock recording. Certainly blows the Aerosmith album completely away...
Sell-out? Bullshit. Any reviewer you happen to read that says so isn't worthy of your attention ever again.
Welcome back, gentlemen...
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