Audioslave
“Audioslave is not a supergroup, because it’s a real band. It’s not Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine together; it’s a brand new entity. Blind Faith was a one-off. Traveling Wilburys was guys who were in other groups, who occasionally got together. Audioslave is not like that.” – Tom Morello
“My ass.” – Me
Albums Reviewed:
So when Rage Against the Machine broke up, the three guys who aren’t militant-commie rappers with dreadlocks decided to form a “supergroup” with former Soundgarden yelper Chris Cornell, who hadn’t recorded an album people gave a shit about since 1996 (the underrated Down on the Upside, which, along with Badmotorfinger and Superunknown, rules mercilessly and you should get all three right now because they’re so good!!!!!!!!). They’re...um, OK…I guess. You can read all about what I think of them below. Suffice to say they combine the boring Rage tracks where nothing happens but plodding nothingness failing to support a decent riff with the voice of a guy who lost his voice five years ago and now spends most of his time in a tanning booth. But they write really pretty ballads so it’s OK!!!
And, onto the review(s)!
PS: I’ve introduced everyone in the picture above on the Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine pages on this very website. If you don’t know who’s who, I’m making you click your mouse to find out because I enjoy making people waste time.
Audioslave (2002)
Rating: 6
Best Song: “I Am The
Highway”
Yep, it’s just about as half-decently mediocre as I expected, maybe about as good as Evil Empire, but then again maybe not. In any case, this is an obvious example of a bunch of past-their-prime rockers who know how to make good music, but have lost the inspiration and songwriting skills that previously made them capable of creating inspired, original, interesting music instead of agreeably listenable mediocrities. It also sounds exactly like you would expect if you’re familiar with the previous bands involved and assume some sort of degeneration in quality. The songs plod along clumsily behind the powerfully average rhythm section of Brad Wilk and Tim Commerford (and I DON’T CARE how many people wanna email me defending them. They aren’t any good. How many times have you listened to a Rage Against the Machine song and thought “hey, the bassist and drummer are really keeping a fantastic groove here?” NONE! Because it never happened once), Tom Morello shoots out interesting but ultimately derivative-of-his-previous-work riffs and occasional solos that don’t sound anything like a guitar and rule, and Chris Cornell wails as best he can on top, unaware that his voice is completely shot and that every time he tries anything in a register above “low ballad crooning,” he sounds like an opossum with throat cancer.
As far as I can tell, there are basically two songs on this record: the “rocker” and the “ballad,” and each one was written once and photocopied five or six times to somehow fill up an hour (Why the hell is this longer than any Rage Against the Machine album? WHY?). There is no variety, and there is no instrumentation anywhere on here besides bass, drums, tuneless yell, and horrendously overcompressed, fuzzy guitar. The “rocker” and its photocopies are where this album, for the most part, fails. The opening single “Cochise,” besides its admittedly cool “helicopter starting up because we’re a ‘supergroup’ and we’re BADASS” intro, might be the worst song on the entire album, for instance. At best, the rockers here are decently listenable and have interesting riffs. At worst, they’re just fumbling, clumsy, plodding, and poor, and this is an example of the latter. It’s got a cool bridge part, sure (“when you’ll crawl…on my skin…”), but the rest of the song is something THOUSANDS of bands could have written…but this band has Tom Fucking Morello and Chris Fucking Cornell in it. They can and should do better, like the alright “Show Me How to Live,” where it sounds like Tom put some thought and planning into the riff (but also where the production is so annoying I swear I can hear Wilk’s bass drum pedal squeaking in the background. You may find that “organic.” I find it “bullshit”), and the distorto-lyrics slow sludger “Bring ‘Em Back Alive,” which harkens back to old Soundgarden sludge tracks like “Limo Wreck” and every single song on Louder Than Love. But, I mean, it takes like 7 or 8 damn listens to tell the difference between any of these “rocker” tracks, and at best they’re simply “nice.” Not so good.
However, the “ballad” and its photocopies are surprisingly effective, especially the twin single attack of “Like a Stone” and “I Am the Highway.” If you weren’t paying attention, might they sound like the same exact song? Fuck yes! Do they display any kind of exciting, original musicality? Fuck no! Are they very good, pretty songs? Fuck yes! The “for all that I’ve blessed…” bridge in “Like a Stone” might be my favorite moment on the record, but “I Am the Highway” gets the slight nod for best track due to its purty little harmonics intro that sounds like Van Halen’s “Cathedral” (I mean the part before Eddie feeds his guitar through some sort of delay machinery and BLOWS MY MIND…the part with the pretty chords and stuff) and the fact that the tune as a whole reminds me of something from the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Californication album in its super laid-back loveliness and John Frusciante-imitating minimalist guitar solo. Very good song! The other ballads here (most of which, like “Shadow on the Sun,” turn into half-assed overcompressed rockers during their choruses and annoy me) are also (despite the fact in the previous parentheses) generally the strongest material because a) THE DYNAMIC OVERCOMPRESSION THAT TAKES EVERY LOUD GUITAR RIFF AND DRILLS IT INTO MY HEAD IN THE LOUDEST WAY POSSIBLE, BUT SOMEHOW WITHOUT “ROCKING” sort of hurts a lot of the rockers and b) as I mentioned before, Chris’ voice sounds horrendous on the screeches and yelps appropriate for “Cochise” and its ilk, but still sounds fabulous when crooning out touching ballads like “I Am the Highway.” It’s basically an old scratchy cheese grater vs. a beautiful, sonorous piece of loveliness. It’s quite a jarring difference, actually, especially when they place one of the worst rockers on the record (“Exploder”) directly after “I Am the Highway.” Though ofcourse the bad screeching Cornell is still better than Geddy Lee.
One final point I’d like to make about this record, besides the fact that Chris Cornell looks like a total Hollywood joke right now with his perfectly cropped goatee and obviously fake tan (his skin is ORANGE!!), is the subject matter. Rage Against the Machine, even at their worst moments, still felt relevant and important due to their militant left wing politics and Zack de la Rocha’s polemic rants. I never really had a fucking clue what most of Soundgarden’s songs were about, but they at least seemed mildly interesting to me (for instance, what the fuck is “Black Hole Sun” or “Spoonman” supposed to symbolize? Who knows! But they’re pretty cool anyway, right?). I just can’t get used to seeing Tom Morello playing in a band with as many political leanings as Ashlee Simpson or Chris Cornell singing banal lyrics like “I have found another way, burning that gasoline.” Maybe these lyrics would sound better ten years ago, when Chris’ voice could cut holes in steel and Soundgarden was one of the best bands in the world, instead of now, when his voice is shot to hell and he’s singing for an over-the-hill “supergroup,” but whatever. My main issue is with the fact that 75% percent of a militant leftist act has gone off and stopped singing about politics altogether. Sometimes that shit was what made a Rage song interesting. Now, with the rhythm section unable to do shit, Chris Cornell in need of a lozenge half the time, and the subject matter being completely standard and generic, more is on Tom’s shoulders than there ever was in Rage. The fact that the record turns out alright is a testament to him, I guess, though who knows whether he or Chris had more to do with all those nice, purty ballads.
This is not a bad album, but it will disappoint someone who is a fan of Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine. It’s clearly weaker than both (especially Soundgarden, whose jockstrap I wouldn’t even let this band sniff…that was a poor metaphor, I’m sorry). I mean, yeah, they’re a shitload better than most of the nu-metal and emo shit running around these days, but so are plenty of other, younger acts that can absolutely wipe the floor with this band (like System of a Down! They kick ASS!), past achievements be damned. The record gets a theoretically positive rating for the ballads and the ballads only, and let’s hope Tom can inject some more freshness and variety into these guys’ sound before their next record, although, to be honest, I don’t really give a shit. I only reviewed Rage Against the Machine because I figured I should do Audioslave right afterwards, I heard they have a new album in the works, and I didn’t feel like reviewing two of this band’s albums at the same time. I’m a douche like that.
limowreck@spymac.com writes:
I agree with your review of
Audioslave. They have a pretty generic sound right
now and Cornell's voice isn't what it used to be. I'm hoping the new album in
June will be better. You need to listen to Chris Cornell's solo cd, Euphoria
Morning. If you liked the ballads on Audioslave you'll love Euphoria Morning.
It's a masterpiece! It shows how much better Cornell was without the rage guys.
Out Of Exile (2005)
Rating: 7
Best Song: “The
Curse”
Surprisingly better, so much so
that I think this new-bojangled supergroup here may have some sort of
future-like thing in the time that will yet come. But not so much so that I like the album any
more than the new offering by Coldplay, so let’s not get carried away here and
proclaim Audioslave the new kings of modern rock when everyone knows that
throne is in quite capable communist Armenian hands at the moment (hands I will
see live in less than a week! With
opening act the MARS FUCKING
Wait, where was I?
Oh, yes. The new Stereoserf record. You know, I was having a conversation with The Mythical Al (his new name) when I was visiting him in El Lay last month, and my relative enjoyment of this very record album came up. He made the very incisive comment that whereas Audioslave sounds like Rage Against the Machine tracks with Chris Cornell singing for some reason (I would supplement the adjective “subpar” before “Rage Against the Machine tracks,” but that’s neither here nor there, so back to the story), Out of Exile sounds, in many places, more like a straight Soundgarden record. With which I fully concurred! Audioslave has decided on a direction with this record, and that direction is: more softer material Chris Cornell obviously wrote that sounds just like late-period gentle Soundgarden tracks. Now, recall that I only really liked the ballads from the last album, and also recall that Soundgarden, as a band, kick the living snot out of Rage Against the Machine. Therefore, if you do the math, my slightly-more-than-the-last-record affection for this album should come as no surprise to the five readers I have.
Oh, but that’s not all! The rockers are actually competent this time, too! Well, some of them. For instance, the opening one-two punch of “Your Time Has Come” and the title track provide more interesting riff power, groove, and compact, driven crunch than any of the rockers from the last album (especially “Cochise,” which is still terrible), and while the later rockers, such as “Drown Me Slowly,” “The Worm,” “Man or Animal,” and “#1 Zero” may not be that great, they’re certainly tolerable. The production is sure better this time, and the loud guitars actually burst through the speakers and sound alive here, doing away with the ass overcompression that hurt the last album. Heck, some of the solos in “The Worm” are Tom’s best work since Rage, and this is not an isolated incident (Tom’s box o’ guitar effects is everywhere on this album), so when mediocre riffs and dull grooves pop up, they’re at least saved by some cool other stuff.
Oh, but the
melodic material is where this album, like its predecessor, makes that sweet,
sweet cash. “Be Yourself” is essentially
a carbon copy of the winning ballad singles from the last album (no surprise it
was the first single then, I suppose), but it’s nice and fine and pretty and
all that, so no complaints. The real
winners here, though, shockingly, occasionally do things altogether different from “Like a Stone” or “I Am
the Highway.” “Doesn’t Remind Me,” for
instance, is something reviewers have gotten to calling “Southern-tinged.” It’s not.
Real good, though! The intro and
verses are very gentle, with subtly
melodic slide guitars underpinned by very tasteful rhythm work before busting
out into the inevitable ball-waving chorus (and yes, if I was a middle-aged
millionaire rock star, I’d wave my balls around during the chorus. Wouldn’t you?) before the unexpected light-as-air
bridge leads you into the even more inevitable ball-waving guitar solo (never
mind the physics of how many hands it’d take for that to work). “Heaven’s Dead” is a lovely, gentle, power
ballad with excellent crooning from Monsieur Cornell, and the vaguely
psychedelic power-pop “Dandelion” is the song from this album that immediately
jumps out at you as being “cool” and “different from previous Audioslave
tracks,” although if you stuck it in the middle of Down on the Upside I’m not sure how many people would notice. But I like
that album! A lot! So I like that song. The closing ballad “The Curse” is my pick of
the litter, however. It’s slow and
plodding and uses two chords, but Cornell’s singing is absolutely transcendent here (the fucker’s getting
his voice back! Yee-hah!), the melody is
ace, and, I dunno, I just feel that, for what it is, it is extremely well-done. It’s
big and powerful and makes you think Audioslave are actually capable of making
a great album in a few years, even though we all know that in all likelihood
they’re just a grunge version of
Pretty solid album here. Nothing above solid, but still…a solid 7 is better than I expected from these guys. The playing is better, the songs are better and more diverse (there are more than two distinct types!), the singing is eons better (maybe Cornell was just having throat “issues” when they made the first one? Who knows), and overall everyone just stepped up their respective games a notch on this album. We need a few more notches before I start thinking of this band as anything more than an altogether strange alliance of two superior, albeit dead, entities, but at least they’ve made that important step up from mediocre to decently enjoyable. It’s tougher than you think.
Dan (megatug@gmail.com) writes:
I used to agree with all your
album reviews! Every single one! Poop on you, you've betrayed me, my love.
Giving the new Audioslave a7!? BLARGH! They just repeat the same song over and
over, The new Billy Corgan album is better than that poo. Chris Cornell sounds
like he has a dick in his mouth. That's cool you're going to see Green Day
though. but Audioslave? Man you're such a sellout.
Revelations (2006)
Rating: 7
Best Song:
“Revelations”
Frankly I’m shocked that
Audioslave has actually lasted long enough to make three albums, but here we
are. Who knew? They’re a “supergroup,” aren’t they? Don’t “supergroups” get crushed under the
combined weight of the massive egos of everyone involved? Shouldn’t Chris Cornell’s ego have crushed
this band by itself? Or at least
shouldn’t the other three band members have been burned beyond recognition at
this point by his freakish orange glow?
And the weird thing is they keep getting more and more respectable! The first two albums were only any good
because they had a bunch of purty ballads on them, and now they’ve completely
done away with the balladry and still managed to make a good record
anyway! And I know that my occasionally
horrific musical taste means I’m probably overrating this album to a disturbing
degree, but, christ, it’s not bad at all!
The hell?
It took Audioslave three
albums to figure out how to do it, but they’re finally writing convincing,
interesting, melodic rockers. I wouldn’t
say anything on this one is the kind of song I’d get all excited when I hear
playing somewhere and yell “Audioslave!!!
Whoooo!!!!” about (I don’t think I’ll ever do that, to be honest, unless
I’m trying to be ironic because I’ve turned into a complete asshole), but, try
as I might, I can’t find a song here that doesn’t at least achieve minimum
standards of acceptability. They sound
more like a band here, and while
that’s usually a massive cliché, this time it totally fits. See, they’re trying this kind of pseudo-Rage,
pseudo-late/melodic Soundgarden bastardized melodo-funk-rock hibbity-jibbity on
the bulk of this record, and between Tom’s best guitar work thus far on an
Audioslave record (really, it’s not even close) and the rhythm section’s slowly
making me rethink my repeated characterization of them as “complete hacks,”
they actually make this stuff work a good deal of the time. The opening title track, with its
butt-kicking main riff and melodic “revelaaaaaations!” chorus and absolutely vintage Tom frigged-out effects pedal
nutsoid guitar solo is where this new Audioslave style (and, probably, the
style they’ve been unsuccessfully trying to reach for about four years) works best,
but unlike previous records by this band where a bunch of clunky rockers were
surrounded by a number of sublimely subtle ballads, this album is consistent! Sure, that means “Revelations” isn’t as good
as the best songs from their first two albums, but that also means that, as I
said before, not a single song on this
record is bad. Unless you think this
kind of pseudo-melodo-funk-rock underlined by Chris Cornell’s still rather
mediocre voice blows, in which case every single song on the album will be bad. But I’m the one with the website, so my
opinion is really the only one that matters here.
For those of you who miss the ballads, “Until We Fall” is definitely “ballad-ish,” so maybe you’ll like that one, but it’s still got a fair amount of hard guitar tastiness. Interesting guitar work all around this album, really, from the crazy solo in “One and the Same” to the intro to “Sound of a Gun” to the solo in “Shape of Things to Come” to the riffs in most every tune on the album. Nothing outstanding, but very enjoyably solid all the way through. I guess you could call it ”workmanlike,” but to be “workmanlike” there has to be a precedent that the band’s done something equal or better before. Pearl Jam? Now that’s “workmanlike.” Considering the quality of Audioslave hard groove-rockers before this album, I think it took them a lot of effort to get their shit together to this degree. But the last three Soundgarden records, the 1st and 3rd Rage records, and Chris Cornell’s solo record all destroy this thing, so let’s not start sucking each other’s dicks just yet.
I actually think I like Out of Exile a little more than this album, just because that had a couple of totally great ballads and slow things, whereas this one is just “neat, pretty good quasi-funk-rocker” after “neat, pretty good quasi-funk-rocker.” I wouldn’t say this record is one for variety, in any case. But Audioslave remains a decently good band, and I remain shocked that they’re actually still together. I suppose this means I’m still a sellout?