Music: CD Reviews [Audioslave: Audioslave]
Audioslave: Audioslave
(Interscope)
By Jeff Treppel
The
missing link between Led Zeppelin and Nirvana, this much-anticipated supergroup
(comprised of 3/4 of Rage Against the Machine and former Soundgarden vocalist
Chris Cornell) arrived 20 years too late to be relevant, but the question
is: can they rock? And the answer is: kinda. This album is overwhelmingly
average. Average riffs, average lyrics, and average songs. I’m sure
combining grunge and classic hard rock must have seemed a good idea to
somebody, but damned if I know whom. Every song builds up and builds up,
and you keep expecting them to rock out, until you realize the build-up
is the song. At times, it contains echoes of Soundgarden’s greatness,
but ultimately, it hits the same pitfall as Rage Against The Machine:
the songs are repetitive and boring. Cornell screams real loud and sings
real nice, but Rage can’t figure out that they’re providing
backing for a real singer and not Zack De La Rocha’s whiny raps.
The highlight is "I Am The Highway." in which they discover Bob Seger
and rip him off instead of Led Zeppelin. Ultimately, a thoroughly underwhelming
experience that won’t make hardcore Soundgarden fans put away their
flannel or Rage fans put down their picket signs, but might make me get
out my copy of Superunknown or Physical Graffiti. Grade:
C
Article posted on 6/17/2004
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