King Animal

Review by That Guy

Of all the pacific northwest (read: Seattle) bands that shot to prominence in the early-mid nineties, Soundgarden did so with the least drama and has thus been served the poorest by posterity. Kurt Cobain's dysfunctional self-loathing was a shot to the brain (hahahahaha) of the 90s angst-filled youth and effectively Nirvana called shotgun on legend status and the title of pioneers of Grunge. Soundgarden never did get as “mainstream” as them but they were too famous to keep their underground cred intact. They were caught in the middle.

16 years since their last studio album, Soundgarden are back together with their latest creation, King Animal. They're older, and they sound it; especially Cornell. You can't expect them to keep going heavy metal like Badmotorfinger anymore, and they clearly can't go metal like they're in their 20s anymore. Not that Soundgarden was ever truly a metal band. Badmotorfinger's successor, Superunknown proved that. No they were a mixture of brain and brawn. I suppose the best comparisons would be with bands that have experimented with a similar mixture in the 13 years of Soundgarden hiatus: Deftones, Queens of the Stone Age and Mastodon. ]

The return starts with Cornell crooning Been Away Too Long, an announcement of their return in confident fashion, with a more streamlined voice, and some high end guitar fiddling over the booming toms of Matt Cameron. The song is a taste of things to come. Non-State Actor is a Audioslave reminiscent rocker and most like to please those that say Badmotorfinger was Soundgarden's pinnacle. By Crooked Steps has Cornell soaring in front of Cameron's straight march drumming. It's not bad, but seems kinda filler. A Thousand Days Before is on the lighter side after the last song. A surprisingly expansive rocker which is quite memorable. Has almost a Raga type feel to it. Blood on the Valley Floor is probably the heaviest they go and is an homage to Seattle sludge metal (think their first album). Cornells' soaked vocals pack the intensity of a clown zombie apocalypse. Bones of Birds moves suddenly in a new direction. Slow jammed, intense and melancholy, it has the appeal of what could be considered their greatest song, Black Hole Sun. SG have always had this knack for being able to tonic their darkness with refined, but immense grooves, and they do the same with the lithe Taree, one of my personal favourites of the album. Kim Thayll's solo is nice too. Attrition an atypically fast song for SG, and it still isn't one of the more memorable songs. Black Saturday and Halfway There both include acoustic strums and an almost pop-rock vibe from Cornell, something we all know he has always been enthusiastic about. Especially the latter. Total pop rock. Worse Dreams picks up the old power chord goodness again, from a groovy bassline ascending into a filthy thrash of guitar and drums after about 3 minutes to the outro. Eyelid's Mouth is what SG was always about. Thayll's contorted riffage, Cornell's distinctive voice and Cameron and Shepherd's odd time signatures. Keeping the fans happy, this one is. Rowing closes out the album with a hodgepodge of styles and a message to denote that no one knows where the musical journey takes them.

In an age of EDM meets nu metal rock mainstream, Soundgarden are still somewhat out of place. But then again, that probably suits Soundgarden just fine. The knights of the sound table ride again!

Rating: 8.5/10