The new, and final, Soundgarden album is almost complete, according to the band themselves.
The three surviving members – and originally bassist Hiro Yamamoto - gave an interview to Allison Hagendorf’s podcast at the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame before their recent induction. They reflected on the band’s early days, the group’s legacy and the final album, which they had been working on in the run up to Chris Cornell’s suicide in 2017. That record was the source of a long legal dispute between Cornell’s widow, Vicky and the group. But since that was resolved in 2023, they have recommenced work on it.
“There’s very familiar elements in some of this new music,” said drummer Matt Cameron. “There were a couple songs that felt like it was kind-of a new chapter, or it could have been a new chapter. So it’s really exciting to hear that. It’s bittersweet, of course.”
“I’m really excited for people to hear it, have our fans hear it. It’s fun for us to be working on it. And sometimes listening to it, it’s overpowering. But, yeah, I’m super proud of the music that we did put together. And we’re pretty close (to finishing it). And, yeah, it is nice having Terry on board with us, for sure.” (Terry being Terry Date who produced their breakthrough album Superunknown)
Meanwhile in other Cornell-related news, his Audioslave bandmate Tom Morello has given an update on the unreleased material that band accumulated over the course of their three studio albums.
Back in 2019, the guitarist had said that there was “a record’s worth” of material in the Audioslave archives. However, in a new interview SNSMix, Morello didn’t sound in any hurry to get it released. “It’s not for lack of anything other than that just we don’t have it together,” he said. “There’s no plan to not put it out. I would love for it to get in the world and hopefully it will one day.”
“It’s not like here’s the 10 best jams,” he added. “Sometimes it’s like, someone likes this one, someone’s not feeling that one. So, we had from each of the three Audioslave records, we had songs left over, some of which are really great.”
Speaking to USA Today in 2020, Vicky Cornell stated that all her late husband’s material would “see light of day” eventually, so presumably she has no moral objections to such a project. But it clearly doesn’t sound like a priority for Morello at the moment.
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