When the famous Seattle Grunge pioneers Soungarden split in late 2000 vocalist Chris Cornell replaced the departed Zack De La Rocha in Rage Against The Machine. After many changes in the band's lineup Chris Cornell, Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk joined forces and finally made Audioslave come to life.
Rick Rubin produced the album Out Of Exile. The music flows very easily and it is not a combination of Soundgarden and Rage Against The Machine in a raw way. The first single from the album was Be Yourself. Out Of Exile is like the natural offspring of the first Audioslave album, or even the last couple of Soundgarden releases.
Chris Cornell contributes to a lot of songs that would have surely made his former Soundgarden mates proud, while guitarist Tom Morello and his former Rage Against the Machine bandmates mostly concentrate on their rhythmic groove. Chris has got to maintain that Jesus Christ pose somehow, right? All twelve tracks on Out of Exile are quite strong. The CD has a good pace and never runs out of stream or looses momentum. Some traces of Pearl Jam and Whitesnake can also be found here if one listens closely. The style of the soulful Chris Cornell is opposed to the Rap / Hip Hop style of Zack de la Rocha.
It is also very crucial to focus on Tom Morello's guitar work on the title track and elsewhere in the album. He is proved to be one of the best guitarists of the last twenty years. He's not only a technically solid player but he has also come up with some of the catchiest and most creative riffs in years. His distinctive sound approach towards the guitar is also very noticeable here.
The band lined up on July 2nd alongside a mammoth cast of high profile acts to participate in Bob Geldorf's poverty awareness Live 8 concerts. Audioslave appeared at the German show held at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. In what was widely predicted to be a short-lived super group / side-project, Audioslave remained together and their popularity grew very fast. All the members seem to have found a common ground and now Audioslave seems more like a band than just a super group. In other words Out of Exile is a straight-ahead Rock album for 2005.
Out of Exile, Audioslave's second release, is surprisingly good if you think that the majority of the acts the same age as them are becoming boring and repetitious.
If you are an open minded metalhead and you wanna catch the modern groove of rock without losing touch of quality the Audioslave is your band!
- Album Highlights: Your Time Has Come, Out Of Exile, Be Yourself, Drown Me Slowly, Yesterday To Tomorrow and #1 Zero.