Album Review: Soundgarden - King Animal

Judge Soundgarden's first album in 16 years by its first track and you'll be sorely disappointed; opening gambit and lead single Been Away Too Long is an unsubtle and self-aggrandising piece of vanilla cock-rock. Thankfully, it's entirely unreflective of where Soundgarden stand in 2012, as the rest of King Animal picks up where the quartet's last album left off, pushing the boundaries of the grunge label heaped upon them with sophisticated instrumentation, diverse vocal melodies and excellent songwriting.

Along with everyone else on the reunion circuit, Soundgarden aren't exactly revolutionary. Like the two other active dinosaurs of the genre's big four – Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam – they're not going to be reinventing the wheel any time soon. It seems that they will, however, continue producing worthwhile music in the style they're most suited to. Where the quartet always excelled is at creating killer records chock full of deep cuts as good as any single. While nothing stands out like a Jesus Christ Pose, it still consistently delivers with quality album tracks such as the pounding By Crooked Steps and droning closer Rowing.

At the very least, it's a solid, straight rock record – something that's getting harder to come by. Prior to the reunion when Cornell was occupying himself with Audioslave and subpar solo excursions, he said he'd put a lid on Soundgarden's career and wanted to leave the band as it was – in the past. With King Animal, they prove there's still a little gas in that tank. Besides, can you blame Cornell for doing whatever it takes to make us forget the last ten years of mediocrity he's responsible for?