I remember back in 1995, Soundgarden won a Grammy for Best Metal Performance for the song "Spoonman." In his acceptance speech, singer Chris Cornell said something to the effect that everyone should realize that yes, Soundgarden is a metal band. I have never had any doubts about that. They are one of the few bands arising from the Seattle grunge scene in the late 80's/early 90's that did have more in common with metal than alternative rock. The Black Sabbath influence in Soundgarden's early work was very evident.
Since that time though, Chris Cornell has done a lot to distance himself from the metal scene, and I would like to know why. Is he chasing money? Fame? Who knows. All I know is that Soundgarden's next album was definitely a far cry from their earlier work. After that, Cornell decided to go solo and sounded more like Bryan Adams than the once-mighty metal singer he was. Then he joined members of Rage Against the Machine to form Audioslave, which was not a bad band, but ultimately disposeable modern rock. Now, he has teamed up with Timbaland of all people to form some horrible version of pop music with dance beats. I have heard a few songs, and this is one of the worst things I have ever heard. What happened to Chris Cornell?
He still has his trademark strong tenor voice, but the music he is making is atrocious. It's time to hang it up. His inadequacies are further revealed in the wake of the other members of Soundgarden joining with Tad Doyle, formerly of grunge band Tad, and performing Soundgarden classics.
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