AUDIOSLAVE

same

CD, Epic

It took me some time, but now I have come to an opinion: “Audioslave” is a decent rock record with definite highlights. “Not much that ain’t”, you say? Well, more than you usually get from major-label-rock-bands, and a lot more than cynics – like me – would have expected. If Audioslave were not ex-members from well-known rockbands but newcomers, this record would either have been praised over all known boundaries or ignored completely (always depending on the abilities of their promotion agency).

I realised that the records I have been recommending in this forum started to fall more and more into one of two categories in the last weeks and months. They were either electronic records, mainly from very obscure sources, or they were country in one way or another. Just check the lists and you’ll see what I mean. It’s been a long time since I reviewed Marilyn Manson or Slipknot or System of a Down in here. (And I doubt I ever would again, even though theirs were among those reviews with the highest download-rates.) When I bought “Audioslave” I had no intention of writing anything about it. When I heard their first single “Cochise”, I said to myself and everyone who cared to listen: “Whatever Chris Cornell does turns to Soundgarden obviously” and a lot of people nicked and carried on doing whatever they were doing at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, I love Soundgarden. My first Soundgarden-album was “Louder than love” in 1989 and I bought it when it came out. I cut my shoulder-length-long when Chris Cornell did it (and Mike Patton) (and I started wearing glasses, which looked stupid with long hair.) Why did I buy the whole album, when I didn’t like the single in the first place? Well, don’t ask me. It was a special offer. I wanted to know what else these dudes managed to do. Suddenly the opportunity came and I thought, what the heck, I’ll get it. I do that a lot. Maybe more often than I should, but hey, it is my money, I work hard for it, I might spend it on whatever I deem okay.

Today “Audioslave” ran in my CD-player three times in a row by accident and now I like it. It is a great record, with a lot of ups and downs and a real collection of different songs. Most of them will remind me of something, in parts or as a whole, but these are never bad. Of course the plain Soundgarden-rip-off of “Cochise” stays in the way, but the booming bass-and-guitar-riff in “Set it off” is pure Rage Against The Machine-power. “I am the highway” sounds like Pearl Jam sound today, so that is not to bad either. My wife says some of the songs sound like Lenny Krevitz, and that might even be true, if you take the better songs by Lenny Krevitz. “I am the highway” has the same lonely, desert-cruising-late evening-atmosphere as “can’t get you off my mind” and the riff of “Cochise” sounds a little like a dirtier, heavier version of “American woman.” Maybe it is the production by Rick Rubin. He produced some of the greatest records around, as you all might know, from various places and genres.

But there are also some new things, such as Cornell’s hoarse growling in “Exploder”, which some people have compared with, no watch it, Kid Rock. No, he doesn’t rap, but when Mister Rock sings, he has a vaguely analogue snarling growl in his voice, like to much whiskey and cigarettes, whereas Cornell had - and still has – this big powerful, booming voice that always made Soundgarden stand apart from the other bands, that had singers, that couldn’t really sing at all. If Audioslave were a newcomer-band they might even be cast into the corner of Nu Metal, somewhere between Disturbed and Incubus. Of course, with their history, this won’t happen. With this history people are going to watch every one of their steps a lot more closely. Is that a burden? Or is their connection, after the break-up of their former bands, a logical and consequent step forward? Very much like Billy Corgan and Zwan, none of them strayed to far from their homegrounds. A safe bet or rather the effort to keep a straight path in their artistic evolution? Well, I guess the second album will show that. Until then I’ll be around and have a good time with “Audioslave” as my favourite big-ass-rock-album at this moment in time. Next time around I’ll write some more reviews about obscure electronica-records and underground-bands who need the promotion a lot more than this one here. Dig?

03/2003