gerrythedon

Soundgarden to Release 'King Animal' on Nov. 13

Band's First Studio Album Since 1996... First Single Available Sept. 27



Soundgarden will release "King Animal," the veteran rock band's sixth studio album and first in over 16 years, on Nov. 13. The set's first single, "Been Away Too Long," hits digital retailers on Sept. 27.

Since reuniting in 2010, the Seattle group has issued retrospective album "Telephantasm" and live release "Live on I-5." In June, they hit No. 4 on the Rock Songs chart with "Live to Rise," a hard-driving rocker written for "The Avengers" soundtrack that has sold 90,000 downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Chris Cornell, Matt Cameron, Ben Shepherd and Kim Thayil co-produced the album with longtime collaborator Adam Kasper and recorded at Studio X in Seattle. "King Animal" will be released on Seven Four Entertainment and Republic Records.

In March, Cornell told Billboard the album's sound would be diverse.

"I don't really know how to describe it musically," he said, "because typically with Soundgarden... every time we write a song we always take it for what it is and try to make it the most it can be. It's very diverse, I can tell you that."

"King Animal" is the band's first studio effort since 1996's "Down on the Upside," which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Other releases include the grunge standards "Ultramega OK" (1988), "Louder Than Love" (1989) and "Badmotorfinger" (1991). They reached a commercial peak in 1994 with "Superunknown," which has sold 3.8 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, and topped the album chart, yielding five hit singles and two Grammy Awards.

Overall, the band has 8.2 million albums sold in the U.S. during their career, according to SoundScan.

"King Animal" Track Listing
Been Away Too Long
Non-State Actor
By Crooked Steps
A Thousand Days Before
Blood On The Valley Floor
Bones of Birds
Taree
Attrition
Black Saturday
Halfway There
Worse Dreams
Eyelid's Mouth
Rowing


BILLBOARD.com

Mordred

Here's hoping they've still got it. The one new song on their recent compilation was alright, but it was just missing something that the best Soundgarden songs have.

gerrythedon

Soundgarden King Animal Exclusive
Five unreleased bonus demo tracks included on Soundgarden's new release. Two of the bonus tracks are exclusive to Best Buy.

dvduser6

...and the album is streaming in full on iTunes starting today. Really liking it so far.

Throwing Copper

I can't figure out why in the world they would lead off the album with "Been Away Too Long" --- it's not even a good song. And it's a single.

Luckily, the album gets better after that.

The Black

Somehow this reminds me of Chinese Democracy, over-produced and dissapointing for a band that was out of the spotlight for so long.

cdollaz

Yeah, I'm unimpressed. They used to be a unique hard rock/metal band. Now they just sound like a generic alternative band.

Hiro11

Chris Cornell should never be forgiven for his relatively recent crimes against humanity. "Scream" may be the worst album of the past decade. Also, his cover of "Billy Jean" is comically awful bullshit. He wins the Rod Stewart Award for the most gifted vocallist to use his powers for evil.

gerrythedon

Pearl Jam Radio on SiriusXM (Ch. 22) will be celebrating the release of the first new Soundgarden album in 15 years, King Animal, by airing a radio special that includes music spanning Soundgarden's career, songs from the new album, and an exclusive interview with Kim and Matt by Mike and Stone of Pearl Jam. Be sure to tune in on Friday November 9th at 6PM ET / 3PM PT. More info and broadcast times here http://www.siriusxm.com/pearljamradio

King Animal will be available as a Box Set, a Deluxe CD, and 180 gram double vinyl. View and pre-order all the deluxe editions at www.soundgardenworld.com. You can also stream King Animal in its entirety on iTunes now.


from PJ email

chino77

Pretty boring cd, why listen to that when I can listen to badmotorfinger. Oh and I like a song or 2 off of scream. Long gone is a good song.

Throwing Copper

I'm surprised at all the negative reviews here. Maybe some folks only listened to the record once? (never a good idea when forming an opinion on music).

I'm not a huge Soundgarden fan, but this thing is better than my wildest expectations for a band that hasn't produced a new record in 16 years.

The print reviews are really good, too, across the board.

asianxcore

For anyone in Northern California, Soundgarden will be back in 2/12 & 2/13 of 2013!

Mike86

I'll probably end up picking this up but I can't say I'm overly excited about it. I was never the biggest Soundgarden fan to begin with (I mostly liked Superunknown) and Chris Cornell kind of lost me with his solo albums. I think his best work was with the one off album Temple of the Dog to be truthful (him on vocals and members of Pearl Jam). The single Soundgarden did on The Avengers soundtrack is okay and the one from the greatest hits album was so-so.

covenant

Nothing really stands out on this album. Normally after a quick listen I can immediately pick the songs that really grab me. Some start interestingly enough but before you know it my mind is wandering and the music is just droning on in the background.

SoSpacey

Giving it one run through, I think this is a pretty good album. I wonder how I will feel after a few listens.

I will be at Soundgarden's release party this Tuesday at Irving Plaza in NYC and I am pretty stoked about that. Irving holds about 1200 people.

Then they will be back at Hammerstein in January.

asianxcore

More dates for Soundgarden in 2013!

01/18 Washington, DC – DAR Constitution Hall
01/19 Upper Darby, PA – Tower Theatre
01/20 Boston, MA – Orpheum Theatre
01/22 New York, NY – Hammerstein Ballroom
01/23 New York, NY – Hammerstein Ballroom
01/25 Toronto, ON – Sound Academy
01/26 Toronto, ON – Sound Academy
01/27 Detroit, MI – The Fillmore
01/29 Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre
01/30 Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre
02/01 Milwaukee, WI – Eagles Ballroom
02/02 Minneapolis, MN – Orpheum Theatre
02/06 Portland, OR – Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
02/07 Seattle, WA – The Paramount
02/08 Seattle, WA – The Paramount
02/10 Vancouver, BC – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
02/12 Oakland, CA – Fox Theatre
02/13 Oakland, CA – Fox Theatre
02/15 Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
02/16 Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern

emanon

While I'd prefer to go to Chicago, the advantage of Milwaukee being on a Friday is too much to overcome.

Damn, I'm old.

JZ1276

Listened to it once so far. First impression is I like it. Rowing stood out for me. cool song.

Mordred

It's alright. Favorite track is probably "Bones of Birds." It's definitely missing something that Down on the Upside and Superunknown had. I always thought the contrast between Soundgarden's big rock songs and the slow burning numbers really showed the band at their best. There's nothing in the style of "Fell on Black Days", "The Day I Tried to Live", "Blow Up the Outside World" or "Overfloater." It all feels a little same-y.

Kim Thayil sounds pretty restrained here as well. Makes them seem a little too generic. I'll give the album another few spins and see if my impression improves at all.

bunkaroo

Question for those who have heard it - how does it compare to Down on the Upside?

I ask because they had already lost me with that record. If this is anything like that record there's no point in me checking in out. Badmotofinger and Superunknown are the pinnacle for me.

Throwing Copper

Here is a link to the magazine reviews on metacritic. There are 7 of them right now, and i'm sure more will be added.


http://www.metacritic.com/music/king-animal/soundgarden

emanon

In for Milwaukee.

Bob_Bobbson

The MP3 version of the album is $3.99 the whole week.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=nosim/dvdtalk

bunkaroo

Thanks for the link - for that price I'll probably bite.

nodeerforamonth

That's a fair price for a bunch of mp3s.