Yeehaw! It is time for another
music review. This may be the first time that I’ve completed an artist only to
buy another album and carry on. It won’t be the last.
Disc 651 is…. King Animal
Artist: Soundgarden
Year of Release: 2012
What’s up with the Cover? Not the “King Animal” that’s for sure – more likely
the king animal’s trophies. With the snow-draped landscape and the white
flowers it is strangely beautiful, but I’d still want to be out of that forest
come sundown.
How I Came To Know It: I’ve been a fan of Soundgarden since my old
room-mate Greg brought home “Badmotorfinger” back in 1991. Despite their many
good albums since, my bad experience with “Down on the Upside” held me back
from buying “King Animal.” Armed with a gift certificate, I took a chance on it
at last a couple months ago.
How It Stacks Up: I now have six Soundgarden albums. Competition is fierce, but I’m going to put
“King Animal” solidly in the middle of the pack at number four, bumping the
“Screaming Life/Fopp” EP and “Down on the Upside” down a peg each.
And as a
result of this new album, I’ve got to do the recap of all their albums all over
again – in slightly revised order as noted:
- Badmotorfinger: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 283)
- Louder
Than Love: 4 stars
(reviewed at Disc 528)
- Superunknown: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 481)
- King
Animal: 4 stars (reviewed
right here)
- Screaming
Life/Fopp: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 393)
- Down
on the Upside: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 304)
Rating: 4 stars
It isn’t
often that a band breaks up and then years later is able to recapture the magic
for a reunion album. For that reason, I was skeptical of Soundgarden’s first
album together in 18 years. Luckily “King Animal” beat the odds, delivering a powerful
return of one of the grunge era’s great bands, with a record that holds its own
with anything in their early career.
All the
signature elements of the Soundgarden sound are back: Chris Cornell’s majestic
and powerful rock voice still drips celebratory fury off every word. Kim Thayil
writes amazing guitar riffs that are as funky as you can get and still be hard
rock. Ben Shepherd still grounds those riffs with bass lines interesting enough
to carry a song, but egoless enough to ride in the back of the mix.
And as
for the drummer, Matt Cameron hammers away with a power thud that is reminiscent
of an early Bill Ward. When Soundgarden broke up Cameron soon became Pearl Jam’s
drummer and with his return to Soundgarden he is now the drummer for two of
grunge’s three signature bands. Who knows, if Kurt Cobain had lived and Dave
Grohl had gone off to form the Foo Fighters, Cameron could’ve pulled the
hat-trick.
As ever,
Soundgarden’s sound is a perfect blend of rock and groove metal. Just like
their earlier albums, “King Animal” is rife with juicy guitar licks and layers
of sound that fit so seamlessly the complex arrangements never lose their
garage-rock urgency.
For all
of the similarities with their earlier albums, “King Animal” avoids sounding
like the band is trying to recapture their past glories. So often these reunion
albums feel like they are trying too hard, and the songs end up as pale
imitations of what once made the band great. Instead, “King Animal” holds its
own, with songwriting and performances that sound timelessly like Soundgarden,
but very much updated to the present.
The
album begins with “Been Away Too Long”
which is a good song, but lyrically I found it self-indulgent. Obviously true,
but they should let the audience come to that conclusion on their own.
Fortunately
it quickly moves on to “Non-State Actor.”
With its catchy melody and stark metaphors, this song gets the album’s theme of
mankind’s self-destructive tendencies going with a bang. Literally – the song
features rockets and tanks.
“Blood on the Valley Floor” takes this
theme down into the trenches. It is as thick and crunchy as anything they
accomplished previously but never drowns in its own churning mud – it just
makes you want to get your feet dirty. I’m not entirely sure what it is about –
probably how the ‘king animal’ has such a sad propensity for doing violence on our
own species.
The
album loses a little bit of steam with “Bones
of Birds” and “Taree.” “Taree” has a bit of a latter-day Rush
feel to it and felt a little out of place with the other songs.
The
record recovers nicely with stripped down tracks, including “Black Saturday” and “Halfway There.” Both songs showcase Cornell’s
ability to put aside the throaty yell, and just sing it from the heart. These tracks
hearken to Chris Cornell’s solo efforts, only they are much better. I’ve always
felt that other strong voices are needed to keep Cornell reined in, and there
are none better at it than the guys in Soundgarden.
As
enjoyable as it is to take a sonic break with these tracks, “King Animal” is at
its best when it is driving heavy and hard. The record’s penultimate track, “Eyelid’s Mouth” brings it all home.
Starting with a Ben Shepherd bass shine, the song slowly builds, adding guitar
and then Cornell soaring on top of it all, before it flows back down into a
muddy groove. The song is a roller-coaster of rock, and once it starts you don’t
want to get off. It opens with:
“In the eyelid’s mouth
On the iris tongue
When a scream falls out
Only the tear has won.”
It is a strained
image, but with Cornell’s delivery and the chugging power of the song, it
becomes laden with dreadful meaning. It felt like the sequel to “Searching With My Good Eye Closed”
twenty-one years later. What can I say; these guys know how to creep you out
with eye metaphors.
The mistakes
of their previous effort, “Down on the Upside” – a lack of musical direction, a
bloated number of tracks – are fully solved. “King Animal” is a responsible thirteen
tracks, and although slightly long at 52 minutes, rarely drag or loses focus.
Having
only recently bought the album I gave it a lot of listens in a short period of
time, and it never wore me out. I only moved on because I had other new music I
also wanted to hear. It has me hopeful Soundgarden does another record soon.
Best tracks: Non-State Actor, By Crooked Steps, A Thousand Days
Before, Blood on the Valley Floor, Eyelid’s Mouth, Rowing
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