The early 2000s saw a couple of supergroups form out of the remnants of popular ‘90s rock bands; both were greeted with hype and radio airplay, and both dissolved a few years later. Removed from the era and looking back, the fact remains that both Velvet Revolver and Audioslave produced a few pretty good slabs of hard rock all their own.
Audioslave was a novel idea but one that worked, albeit in fits and starts, and you rarely hear someone in 2016 pining for “Cochise” or “Show Me How To Live” on their local rock station. But Out Of Exile is a better album than the debut because it’s no longer Rage Against the Machine + Soundgarden. It’s Audioslave, a unique band.
The three years between records allowed the band to tour, rack up three million album sales, get a Grammy nomination and write more material together, and that time allowed them to become more comfortable as a unit. Of the three Audioslave albums, this is easily the best, veering from pulse-racing hard rockers like “Your Time Has Come” and “Man Or Animal” to slower numbers like “Heaven’s Dead” to quirky pieces like “Doesn’t Remind Me” and the earnest, straightforward, darn near cheerful “Dandelion,” both of which were minor rock radio hits.
In 2005, these sounded right at home on the radio, Cornell’s voice made for rock music and the muscle of Rage Against the Machine happy to be playing together again. The tracks are still fairly generic –definitely of their time – but a few songs or passages rise to the top as a reminder of these players’ intelligence and pedigree. Witness the curves of “#1 Zero,” the psychedelic ending of the ferocious “Man or Animal” and Cornell’s wordless vocal “oohs” at the end of Dandelion to see how personality and creativity can enliven sheets of guitar rock.
Tom Morello remains as amazing as ever, although unable to totally dispense with his proclivity for noisy, squealing solos of the sort where you just discovered how to make a cool sound with your guitar and need to show your friends. I grant you that it’s a signature, but it can be jarring in place of an otherwise decent song, like “Drown Me Slowly.” The pounding rhythm section more than makes up for it, in most cases, and as said Cornell sings the heck out of these 12 tracks.
Out Of Exile won’t change your life, but it’s a solid offering by a band that proved it had more to offer than the “supergroup” tag and a bunch of initial hype. Plus, the Zeppelin riffage of “Your Time Has Come” sounds absolutely fantastic blasting out of your speakers. Listen loud. Long live rock.
