Audioslave

Eomer · 12-01-2002, 01:19 PM

It's wierd, but I don't think a single person has mentioned them since they came out. What do people think about it? How well is it selling?

Personally I think it is one of the better releases in the past year or two. Nothing new or spectacular about it, just a good straight forward hard rock album. Chris Cornell is still on of the best frontmen in rock right now (although his solo album had me seriously worried, didn't like it at all), he still has his voice. The lyrics also are very good, and I was surprised that there is a slight political bent to a few of their songs. I know, it's RATM, but the guy writing the lyrics hasn't really gotten on any soap boxes before, so that was kind of surprising.

Tom Morello kicks serious ass on most of the album, with wicked riffs and even better solos (the solo in Like A Stone is incredible, not sure what I like about it). With all these nu-metal bands that dominate harder rock these days, there are very few bands that actually do solos anymore, so it's nice that Morello does. It could be an aquired taste though, as very few of his solos are traditional ones, most are full of effects and fucked up feed back.

The bass isn't anything spectacular, but I like how he uses effects from time to time. Same goes with drums, they are just kind of there to provide a backbone to Morrello and Cornell. And that's kind of what I was looking for really.

The album is also nice and long, something that I appreciate. I hate it when I drop my 15 bucks on a CD that has 35 minutes of music. It runs about 65 minutes I believe. Granted, if 30 minutes of an hour long album sucks, it may as well not even be there, but the album is quite solid throughout. Even the softer songs are quite good, Like A Stone will probably end up a pretty big hit.

Overall the album is basically what I was looking for: RATM's music with Chris Cornell singing on top of it.

Bronyaur · 12-01-2002, 01:43 PM

Us Generation X'ers never gave the world shit. We don't care about anything. We don't even care about ourselves. We blew through our dotcom cash and we're still stuck with our student loans. Our biggest political moment was turning Ralph Nader into a presidential spoiler. And now, justice comes swiftly knocking. It is time to face that which we fear the most: the second coming of Lollapalooza's grunge-rock all-stars.

Recent days have seen the re-emergence of an eerie number of megacelebrity has-beens-- from Jane's Addiction backing Courtney Love on tour, to Krist Novoselic joining forces with Meat Puppeteer Curt Kirkwood in Eyes Adrift-- combining their powers in the hopes of forming one mightier superbeast. And yea, we have seen these bands and known our sins, and the discipline was just and fair. But repent we did not. And so, as further castigation, we now find ourselves faced with the ultimate grievance: Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell assuming vocal duties for Urban Outfitters politicos Rage Against the Machine. Let the punishment fit the crime.

The story goes that sometime after Zach de la Rocha dropped out of Rage, Cornell agreed to be the new singer, so long as they ditched their political bent and changed their name. And based on the evidence, losing the politics doesn't hurt the music: as Cornell proves here time and again, he can still voraciously belt the most inane lyrical tragedies with such conviction that you'd almost think they meant something were it not for such giveaways as, "Pearls and swine bereft of me," and, "Heaven waits for those who run/ Down your winter and underneath your waves/ Where you watch and wait." It's also amusing to note that after years of playing the hardcore leftist, overeducated liberator of jailed antiheroes, Tom Morello gladly dropped the message from his music in lieu of playing venues that don't hang their name on a Schlitz sign.

Bassist Tom Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk fall in line, but it's Cornell that's made a bitch out of all of them-- from forcing them to cancel a slot on the Ozzfest bill, to sticking them with the most asinine bandname of the year. (It was Cornell's idea to dub this bloated masturbathon Audioslave, and the name says everything with the same exacting precision that it says nothing at all. Audioslave. It's like it was tailor-made for a Sam Goody voiceover.) It's kind of incredible how slick and lifeless the Rage band sounds without de la Rocha spitting all over everything. The guys just autopilot their way through the most generic hard rock possible behind Cornell's Dio-like wailing about highways and death and more highways. Morello tries to stick out with his wanking, synth/pedal solos, but all his effort amounts to little more than an indulgent novelty.

He, of course, is less an embarrassment than Cornell. Now, I'll freely admit being a Soundgarden fan: I remember when all the guys admired his politically correct take on machismo, and all the girls swooned at his hairy good looks and dreamed of just ripping the flannel right off him. To be fair, his voice sounds great, even after years of larynx-shredding throat-gore. The effect, unfortunately, is lost when you realize that all the lyrics are complete gibberish. "Set if off/ Set it off, my children." "I will wait for you/ Like a stone/ I will wait for you there/ Alone." Or best of all: "I am a virus!" He also rips off some pseudo-spiritual lyrics from the latest Christian grunge bands, which is ironic because... well, you know the drill: the student becomes the teacher, and they all ride the short bus together.

Sure, the pulsing noises and rumbling groan that open "Set It Off" sound wicked, and "Bring 'Em Back Alive" and "Getaway Car" almost don't suck. You could even say that, technically, Audioslave "rock". But they do so emptily, predictably, and without a single new idea. Producer Rick Rubin has fashioned a synthesized rock-like product that emits no heat. It's the worst kind of studio rock album, rigorously controlled-- even undercut-- by studio gimmickry; the rare instances during which the band starts to let go (the end of "Shadow on the Sun") are incidental and abruptly cut off.

At its worst, this project is just plain retarded. On "Show Me How to Live", Audioslave snatch the opening chords from Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)"-- try keeping the "hey hey hey hey" out of your head during this thing-- and then cop the riff from Aerosmith's "Walk This Way". Top this hall-of-fame moment of classic un-inspiration with a bridge that consists solely of synthesized violin, and the fact that the song features Cornell yelling to his creator, "You gave me life/ Now show me how to live!" Was it too much to ask for some effort? Were we already pressing our luck that these guys even got together?

And it's so frustrating because Cornell would be better suited to virtually anything else. The man would sound more at home dueting with Shania. Listen to that! I'm in awe of his lungs. He belts these songs like they never went out of style, like he's still got that curly Louder Than Love-era mane thrown back and glistening, like he wants to shake the studio to its very foundation with the power of all his gristled fury-- when all of a sudden, the effects kick in and morph his voice into a fucking sitar! It just might be the most ridiculous and ill-timed production trick of his career. And all I can picture is Cornell high-fiving Rick Rubin and hitting the beach to play volleyball with Creed.

Duck, because America's gonna vomit.

-------
That was from Pitchfork, they gave the album a 1.7 out of 10. I haven't heard the album (heard a song on the radio, can't remember the name, but I didn't care for it), but I thought this review was one of the funniest things I have ever read

somecleric · 12-01-2002, 01:57 PM

I think pitchfork nailed it. If divided up into tons of tiny little clips, some of it is really good, but when pieced together, it's just awful. I feel like I've heard everything on the album before even though I know I haven't. It's just boring cookie-cutter rock.

Eomer · 12-01-2002, 02:41 PM

It's reviews like that that demonstrate why I fucking hate most movie/music critics, and even a lot of video game critics. That guy went into writing his review and listening to the CD wanting to slag it. At least, it seems that way to me. It's like critics get off on ripping into things, that it somehow puts them above the artists who make the music or whatever it is they are reviewing. It seems like that's how they validate their existence.

I have basically given up on reading, or at least listening to, music and movie reviews. Maybe I just have totally different tastes, but I end up completely disagreeing with the vast majority of the ones I come across. I find I get better results just listening to word of mouth and/or D/Ling mp3's.

The lyrics don't make sense? Of course not when you take them out of the context in the song. And how come poets can get away with seemingly making no sense, but singers can't?

As far as presenting no new ideas, yea, it's true they basically don't. However this band never claimed to be the second coming of Christ, bringing new and wonderful ideas to music. As far as I know, their basic goal was to just make a good straight ahead rock album, and they succeeded. 99% of music presents nothing new, why does it have to? Why can't reviewers just sit down and listen to the music, instead of overanalyzing it. They are doing their readers a disservice, because the vast majority of the people buying a record do just that: listen to it. They don't pick it apart and analyze every bit of it. The very same things apply to movies. Half Baked and other slap stick comedy movies basically CANNOT get a good review, yet most people I talk to thoroughly enjoy them. *shrug* Whatever I guess.

Samus Aran · 12-01-2002, 05:17 PM

Actually I made a post about them a month ago.

http://www.fohguild.org/forums/showt...ght=audioslave

Eomer · 12-01-2002, 06:34 PM

Yea I know, I meant since the album release on the 19th.

AngryGerbil · 12-01-2002, 09:56 PM

I agree with Eomer's opinion of critics going in half-cocked, but I still have to agree with Pitchfork, that stuff really sounds bad, rehashed, generic, lame, and for the most part not good.

Fogel · 12-06-2002, 09:39 PM

I didn't care for what I've heard. A few songs he just sounds like a wannabe sammy hagar, and I don't like sammy

Zarx · 12-07-2002, 04:55 AM

Wanna be Sammy hager lol ok. I think it's a great album, I picked it up tonight and been listening to it alot.

VelMonk · 12-07-2002, 07:43 PM

So me and my buddy were talking music the other day, got talking about Chris Cornell, I say, "Yeah, he's in Rage"
"Wtf you dumbass, Chris Cornell is in Audioslave" "Shit, I could've SWORN he was in Rage, damnit." And I really did. And I was right, sort of. That makes me feel better.

Bralkan · 12-09-2002, 02:33 PM

I think they are great, cornell rules. I love his skillz.

12-01-2002, 01:19 PM	#1 (permalink)
Eomer Registered User Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 9,517 +25 Internets	Audioslave It's wierd, but I don't think a single person has mentioned them since they came out. What do people think about it? How well is it selling? Personally I think it is one of the better releases in the past year or two. Nothing new or spectacular about it, just a good straight forward hard rock album. Chris Cornell is still on of the best frontmen in rock right now (although his solo album had me seriously worried, didn't like it at all), he still has his voice. The lyrics also are very good, and I was surprised that there is a slight political bent to a few of their songs. I know, it's RATM, but the guy writing the lyrics hasn't really gotten on any soap boxes before, so that was kind of surprising. Tom Morello kicks serious ass on most of the album, with wicked riffs and even better solos (the solo in Like A Stone is incredible, not sure what I like about it). With all these nu-metal bands that dominate harder rock these days, there are very few bands that actually do solos anymore, so it's nice that Morello does. It could be an aquired taste though, as very few of his solos are traditional ones, most are full of effects and fucked up feed back. The bass isn't anything spectacular, but I like how he uses effects from time to time. Same goes with drums, they are just kind of there to provide a backbone to Morrello and Cornell. And that's kind of what I was looking for really. The album is also nice and long, something that I appreciate. I hate it when I drop my 15 bucks on a CD that has 35 minutes of music. It runs about 65 minutes I believe. Granted, if 30 minutes of an hour long album sucks, it may as well not even be there, but the album is quite solid throughout. Even the softer songs are quite good, Like A Stone will probably end up a pretty big hit. Overall the album is basically what I was looking for: RATM's music with Chris Cornell singing on top of it.

12-01-2002, 01:43 PM	#2 (permalink)
Bronyaur Drinking more than Robert Pollard... Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: BFE, Missouri Posts: 134 -1 Internets	Us Generation X'ers never gave the world shit. We don't care about anything. We don't even care about ourselves. We blew through our dotcom cash and we're still stuck with our student loans. Our biggest political moment was turning Ralph Nader into a presidential spoiler. And now, justice comes swiftly knocking. It is time to face that which we fear the most: the second coming of Lollapalooza's grunge-rock all-stars. Recent days have seen the re-emergence of an eerie number of megacelebrity has-beens-- from Jane's Addiction backing Courtney Love on tour, to Krist Novoselic joining forces with Meat Puppeteer Curt Kirkwood in Eyes Adrift-- combining their powers in the hopes of forming one mightier superbeast. And yea, we have seen these bands and known our sins, and the discipline was just and fair. But repent we did not. And so, as further castigation, we now find ourselves faced with the ultimate grievance: Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell assuming vocal duties for Urban Outfitters politicos Rage Against the Machine. Let the punishment fit the crime. The story goes that sometime after Zach de la Rocha dropped out of Rage, Cornell agreed to be the new singer, so long as they ditched their political bent and changed their name. And based on the evidence, losing the politics doesn't hurt the music: as Cornell proves here time and again, he can still voraciously belt the most inane lyrical tragedies with such conviction that you'd almost think they meant something were it not for such giveaways as, "Pearls and swine bereft of me," and, "Heaven waits for those who run/ Down your winter and underneath your waves/ Where you watch and wait." It's also amusing to note that after years of playing the hardcore leftist, overeducated liberator of jailed antiheroes, Tom Morello gladly dropped the message from his music in lieu of playing venues that don't hang their name on a Schlitz sign. Bassist Tom Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk fall in line, but it's Cornell that's made a bitch out of all of them-- from forcing them to cancel a slot on the Ozzfest bill, to sticking them with the most asinine bandname of the year. (It was Cornell's idea to dub this bloated masturbathon Audioslave, and the name says everything with the same exacting precision that it says nothing at all. Audioslave. It's like it was tailor-made for a Sam Goody voiceover.) It's kind of incredible how slick and lifeless the Rage band sounds without de la Rocha spitting all over everything. The guys just autopilot their way through the most generic hard rock possible behind Cornell's Dio-like wailing about highways and death and more highways. Morello tries to stick out with his wanking, synth/pedal solos, but all his effort amounts to little more than an indulgent novelty. He, of course, is less an embarrassment than Cornell. Now, I'll freely admit being a Soundgarden fan: I remember when all the guys admired his politically correct take on machismo, and all the girls swooned at his hairy good looks and dreamed of just ripping the flannel right off him. To be fair, his voice sounds great, even after years of larynx-shredding throat-gore. The effect, unfortunately, is lost when you realize that all the lyrics are complete gibberish. "Set if off/ Set it off, my children." "I will wait for you/ Like a stone/ I will wait for you there/ Alone." Or best of all: "I am a virus!" He also rips off some pseudo-spiritual lyrics from the latest Christian grunge bands, which is ironic because... well, you know the drill: the student becomes the teacher, and they all ride the short bus together. Sure, the pulsing noises and rumbling groan that open "Set It Off" sound wicked, and "Bring 'Em Back Alive" and "Getaway Car" almost don't suck. You could even say that, technically, Audioslave "rock". But they do so emptily, predictably, and without a single new idea. Producer Rick Rubin has fashioned a synthesized rock-like product that emits no heat. It's the worst kind of studio rock album, rigorously controlled-- even undercut-- by studio gimmickry; the rare instances during which the band starts to let go (the end of "Shadow on the Sun") are incidental and abruptly cut off. At its worst, this project is just plain retarded. On "Show Me How to Live", Audioslave snatch the opening chords from Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)"-- try keeping the "hey hey hey hey" out of your head during this thing-- and then cop the riff from Aerosmith's "Walk This Way". Top this hall-of-fame moment of classic un-inspiration with a bridge that consists solely of synthesized violin, and the fact that the song features Cornell yelling to his creator, "You gave me life/ Now show me how to live!" Was it too much to ask for some effort? Were we already pressing our luck that these guys even got together? And it's so frustrating because Cornell would be better suited to virtually anything else. The man would sound more at home dueting with Shania. Listen to that! I'm in awe of his lungs. He belts these songs like they never went out of style, like he's still got that curly Louder Than Love-era mane thrown back and glistening, like he wants to shake the studio to its very foundation with the power of all his gristled fury-- when all of a sudden, the effects kick in and morph his voice into a fucking sitar! It just might be the most ridiculous and ill-timed production trick of his career. And all I can picture is Cornell high-fiving Rick Rubin and hitting the beach to play volleyball with Creed. Duck, because America's gonna vomit. ------- That was from Pitchfork, they gave the album a 1.7 out of 10. I haven't heard the album (heard a song on the radio, can't remember the name, but I didn't care for it), but I thought this review was one of the funniest things I have ever read __________________ I am a scientist I seek to understand me I am an incurable and nothing else behaves like me

12-01-2002, 09:56 PM	#7 (permalink)
AngryGerbil zero signal Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: St. Louis, MO Posts: 3,531	I agree with Eomer's opinion of critics going in half-cocked, but I still have to agree with Pitchfork, that stuff really sounds bad, rehashed, generic, lame, and for the most part not good. __________________ Doesn't speak the language. Holds no currency.

12-09-2002, 02:33 PM	#11 (permalink)
Bralkan Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Atlanta GA Posts: 2,118 -1 Internets	I think they are great, cornell rules. I love his skillz. __________________ We're all idiots. http://nottheparrot.blogspot.com

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12-01-2002, 01:57 PM	#3 (permalink)
somecleric Registered User Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 121 -1 Internets	I think pitchfork nailed it. If divided up into tons of tiny little clips, some of it is really good, but when pieced together, it's just awful. I feel like I've heard everything on the album before even though I know I haven't. It's just boring cookie-cutter rock.

12-01-2002, 02:41 PM	#4 (permalink)
Eomer Registered User Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 9,517 +25 Internets	It's reviews like that that demonstrate why I fucking hate most movie/music critics, and even a lot of video game critics. That guy went into writing his review and listening to the CD wanting to slag it. At least, it seems that way to me. It's like critics get off on ripping into things, that it somehow puts them above the artists who make the music or whatever it is they are reviewing. It seems like that's how they validate their existence. I have basically given up on reading, or at least listening to, music and movie reviews. Maybe I just have totally different tastes, but I end up completely disagreeing with the vast majority of the ones I come across. I find I get better results just listening to word of mouth and/or D/Ling mp3's. The lyrics don't make sense? Of course not when you take them out of the context in the song. And how come poets can get away with seemingly making no sense, but singers can't? As far as presenting no new ideas, yea, it's true they basically don't. However this band never claimed to be the second coming of Christ, bringing new and wonderful ideas to music. As far as I know, their basic goal was to just make a good straight ahead rock album, and they succeeded. 99% of music presents nothing new, why does it have to? Why can't reviewers just sit down and listen to the music, instead of overanalyzing it. They are doing their readers a disservice, because the vast majority of the people buying a record do just that: listen to it. They don't pick it apart and analyze every bit of it. The very same things apply to movies. Half Baked and other slap stick comedy movies basically CANNOT get a good review, yet most people I talk to thoroughly enjoy them. shrug Whatever I guess.

12-01-2002, 05:17 PM	#5 (permalink)
Samus Aran Sons of the Storm Heal Bitch Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 771 +1 Internets	Actually I made a post about them a month ago. http://www.fohguild.org/forums/showt...ght=audioslave

12-01-2002, 06:34 PM	#6 (permalink)
Eomer Registered User Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 9,517 +25 Internets	Yea I know, I meant since the album release on the 19th.

12-06-2002, 09:39 PM	#8 (permalink)
Fogel Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 409 +0 Internets	I didn't care for what I've heard. A few songs he just sounds like a wannabe sammy hagar, and I don't like sammy

12-07-2002, 04:55 AM	#9 (permalink)
Zarx Registered User Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 6 -1 Internets	Wanna be Sammy hager lol ok. I think it's a great album, I picked it up tonight and been listening to it alot.

12-07-2002, 07:43 PM	#10 (permalink)
VelMonk Banned Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 578 +0 Internets	So me and my buddy were talking music the other day, got talking about Chris Cornell, I say, "Yeah, he's in Rage" "Wtf you dumbass, Chris Cornell is in Audioslave" "Shit, I could've SWORN he was in Rage, damnit." And I really did. And I was right, sort of. That makes me feel better.