Audioslave
Label: Epic Records/Interscope Records
Rating: 
 

Tracks: Cochise  Show Me How To Live  Gasoline  What You Are  Like A Stone  Set It Off  Shadow On The Sun  I Am The Highway  Exploder  Hypnotize  Bring Em Back Alive  Light My Way  Getaway Car  The Last Remaining Light

When you hear the word supergroup, many names come to mind: the Traveling Wilburies, Temple of the Dog, Damn Yankees. All these bands have one thing in common; they release one overhyped album and then quickly fade away (or Roy Orbison dies, in the case of the Wilburies). That being said, Audioslave is the first supergroup since Temple of the Dog to feature Chris Cornell. The former Soundgarden frontman returns to the radar after a three year hiatus and a barely noticed but ridiculously under appreciated solo album (1999s Euphoria Morning). This time, Cornells brought friends, or at least high profile bandmates, in the form of the three non-Zach de la Rocha-members of Rage Against the Machine, in an attempt to form the ultimate 90s rock revival coup.

So lets do the math here: Cornells howlin soul vocals, plus Tom Morellos guitar-as-turntable art, plus Tim Commerfords set-destroying antics, plus Brad Wilks eerily well flat-ironed hair equals Soundgarden 2: Even Louder than Love.

The truth is, the punch in the face that is Cochise, the lead track/single off Audioslaves debut, is a bit misleading. What Cochise would lead you to believe is that Audioslave will feature Cornell screaming like its 1991 and that Morello will still be using his guitar as everything but a guitar non-stop for fourteen tracks. Not entirely. With the exception of a few songs, namely Cochise, Like a Stone, Set It Off and Bring em Back Alive, Morello tends to downplay his legendary skills. In fact, there are quite a few songs, such as Show Me How to Live and Shadow on the Sun, wherein Morello, Commerford and Wilk sound much more like Thayil, Shepard and Cameron. 

Even scarier, Like a Stone and I am the Highway contain moments where the band appears to be drifting off toward the middle of the road, with mellow acoustic strumming and mid-vocal range white man soul that we all know Cornell is better than. 

However, all is forgiven on Set It Off, which, much like Cochise, still captures the spirit of the original bands, with Morellos video-game wa-wa pedal fading out to reveal a low-voiced Cornell growl. Then there are surprises like Explode, where Cornell closes out the song with a scat routine that appears to reveal some secret love of Aerosmith. Meanwhile, the albums blusiest track, Getaway Car, seems like a watered-down leftover from Cornells solo album, while The Last Remaining Light most reflects Cornells post-Garden/pre-slave sound.

VERDICT: Its hard to think of Audioslave without examining the body of work that led up to its inception, albums like Superunkown and Evil Empire that helped form the soundscape of 90s rock. Its good to hear new work both from Cornell and Morello, and while the comparisons to Rage and Soundgarden will be made, and the band will most likely fizzle out from its own hype, there are some great moments on this album, like there were on the Temple of the Dog and Mad Season (another supergrunge group) albums. Cochise is one of the most legitimately hard-rocking songs on the radio right now, and what follows it is not a disappointment by any means, its just different for the parties involved