It’s been 16 years since Soundgarden took a somewhat-unsteady curtain call with 1996’s Down On The Upside. Since then, drummer Matt Cameron hooked up with his fellow Seattle brothers-in-arms Pearl Jam, while lead singer Chris Cornell stayed busy with the likes of Audioslave and—sigh—that one solo album with Timbaland (2009’s Scream). But with the band back together and the new King Animal set for release Nov. 13 on A&M, Soundgarden is once again firing on all cylinders.
The video for Animal’s first single, “Been Away Too Long,” plays like a menacing, wintry mix of John Carpenter’s The Ward, Pan’s Labyrinth, and 30 Days Of Night. The band’s winter tour, meanwhile, takes Cornell and company across North America through Feb. 16, with a smattering of two-night stints thrown in for good measure. Welcome back, Soundgarden. You’ve been away too… Oh, you already did that. Very good.
