Track Listing

1. Cochise
2. Show Me How To Live
3. Gasoline
4. What You Are
5. Like A Stone
6. Set It Off
7. Shadow On The Sun
8. I Am The Highway
9. Exploder
10. Hypnotize
11. Bring Em Back Alive
12. Light My Way
13. Getaway Car
14. The Last Remaining Light

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1378 in Music
• Released on: 2002-11-18
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
The debut of thundering supergroup Audioslave--featuring members of Rage Against the Machine post-Zack de la Rocha with ex-Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell--is as much curio as fascinating blend of visions. Cornell might be outnumbered, but his unmistakable holler and nihilistic imagery ensure that Audioslave, the album, recalls early Soundgarden. That's especially true since de la Rocha took Rage's signature rap and politicking with him. Still, if this is Soundgarden, it's Soundgarden set to stun. Rage guitarist Tom Morello is more of a mauler than Kim Thayil ever was--witness "Shadow on the Sun", which moves from bruising thud to psychedelic freak-out and back again--while the Rage rhythm section of Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk anchor the bottom end with pure instrumental cement. Intentionally or not, "Gasoline" bears passing resemblance to "Rusty Cage", while the sweeping "I Am the Highway" and slow-burning "The Last Remaining Light" best showcase Cornell's surprisingly New Age-y lyrical bent. Cover art by Storm Thorgerson--who gave Pink Floyd records their distinctive stamp--underscores the set's inherent celebrity. Fans of Rage and Soundgarden can raise clenched fists in unison, for Audioslave is win-win. --Kim Hughes

CD Description
Debut album from the band formerly known as Civilian and featuring former members of Rage Against The Machine with ex-Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell. Since recording the albumin LA with the legendary Rick Rubin, they have split up, reformed and changed their name. 'Audioslave' sounds exactly as you would expect - Rage Against The Machine with vocals and lead guitar by Chris Cornell. Includes the single 'Cochise'.

Customer Reviews

Rock's newest "supergroup" triumph!
“Audioslave”, the long-awaited collaboration between ex-Soundgarden vocalist and occasional guitarist Chris Cornell and “the other three” from Rage Against the Machine, is finally here. And it’s very, very good. The lead-off track, “Cochise”, was a wily choice as a single, as it suckers the public with just what they’re expecting: Rage-style hard-rock backing topped with Soundgarden-style screaming from Cornell. However, the rest of the LP reveals that there’s more to Audioslave than the sum of their old bands’ parts. “The Last Remaining Light” is a widescreen number which probably deserves the dubious accolade of “epic”, if one only had the stomach to use it, and “I Am the Highway” is as grand as the title suggests.

Produced by Rick Rubin, who also produced the final Rage Against the Machine album, “Renagades”, along with such fare as the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 1991 mega-seller “Blood Sugar Sex Magik”, the album is an eclectic brew which manages to retain a cohesive identity. Rubin brings out the best in his charges, and it seems they bring out the best in one another, pushing themselves and their bandmates to new heights of endeavour. Cornell has never screamed better (or more often), but there’s a light and shade, a maturity to be found in his vocal performances that was sorely lacking from 1999’s pin-up album “Euphoria Morning”. Guitarist Tom Morello also shines, his trademark rhythmic dissonance and almost Dadaist approach to guitar soloing joined here by playing of remarkable emotional depth. Who would have thought that the man who gave us “Bombtrack” could also play the blues? “Audioslave” demonstrates that indeed he can. It would seem churlish, having praised Cornell and Morello so highly, to neglect the bedrock upon which this remarkable album is built. Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk have always been a rhythm section of seismic impact, but here they are given room to stretch and groove in a way more smooth than earthy. Commerford’s basslines have an elasticity about them and Wilk’s drumming an adventurousness that RATM’s message-not-the-medium approach simply didn’t have room for.

To sum up, “Audioslave” is more than fans could have hoped for. While the faithful of RATM may miss Zack de la Rocha’s reactionary rapping, and Soundgarden devotees may miss the skewed-meter acrobatics of that act (they went with Matt Cameron; go buy Pearl Jam’s “Riot Act”), Audioslave is neither of these bands, and the stronger for it. The elementary power of Rage’s music is to be found on this record, as is Cornell’s primal roar. But there is more, much more within the grooves or encoded upon the compact disc as zeroes and ones. This album represents a progression for all the musicians involved, a leap into the unknown without a neglecting of the roots. This album is viable, it lives. Let’s hope there’s more to come.

Puts the pretenders in their place!
After a mountain of hype and a couple of false starts, Audioslave finally release their first album. The problem with a group like this (like you didn't know, 3/4 Rage, 1/4 Soundgarden) is that even before people have heard them - and music critics in particular - it's too easy to dismiss them as a gimmick, or to attempt to pigeonhole the music before you hear it.

Strangely I've read the odd review slating the lyrics as OTT, which to me is completely ridiculous. Yes, a lot of the lines are very reaching psychedelically, but with Chris Cornell's voice sounding better (and showing better range than ever before), it's so right! Anyway, slagging off they lyrics just points back to the original naysayers looking for flaws.

So, to the music. Tom Morello said a while back that this album would show how wrong people are to suggest that rock returned with chumps like The Vines, and how right he was. The opening track sets the tone, sounding a perfect amalgamation of RATM and Soundgarden. 'Cochise' has to be one of the best opening tracks to an album ever, with Cornell's voice the absolute epitomy of 'rock vocals' while the frenzied drumming and ever present guitar creat a truly brilliant tune.

Tracks like 'Gasoline', 'What You Are' and (next single) 'Like a Stone' continue in this vein, until you get to 'I Am the Highway'. This song is the business, the kind of rock (I'm loathe to say this) 'ballad' that just isn't around these days. Cornell's voice is at it's most sensitive here and, coupled with some of the aforementioned lyrics ("I am not your autumn moon, I am the night") this is an epic rock tune in the finest 70s mould. As a single, it could potentially be huge.

With tunes like 'Light my Way' and 'Last Remaining Light' to come, there's enough variety here to suggest a long career for Audioslave. Every part of the group seems to have had an equal say so that while you'll recognise RATM and Soundgarden, this is unmistakably something else. Something better in my opinion and, considering Superunknown and RATM's debut in their back catalogues, that about sums up this album.

One final thought is that, obviously just in my opinion, what makes this album is Chris Cornell. They guy is a total one off with a voice that suggests he could rip your head off one minute and recite poetry with the next. The best rock vocals of a generation.

So, in conclusion, go buy the album. It's fresh and important.

RAGE IT IS NOT!
if you thought that this album was going to be anything like RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, then you were wrong. if you thought it would be RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE with a new vocalist, you would be wrong again. if however, you thought that you were going to hear the sensational musical talents of Tim Commerford, Brad Wilk, and Tom Morello combined with the extraordinary vocal powers of Chris Cornell you would be bang on the mark. this is alternative music at its best.
explosive, high energy tracks like COCHISE are subtley blended with more mellow tracks like THE LAST REMAINING LIGHT to form a debut album of exceptional quality.
think of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE and AUDIOSLAVE as brothers. where RAGE are the older, louder, more agressive of the two, AUDIOSLAVE are the quieter, calmer, more peacefull sibling. what both bands have in common is that they are both brilliant.
this album is perfect for anyone who calls themself a fan of rock music or a music lover in general.