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.
With this release of the studio album by Soundgarden, I expect an album from Rage Against The Machine (RATM) as well. Thanks to disbanding of Audioslave ( formed with Chris Cornell from Soundgarden and Others from RATM), after which Soundgarden and RATM got reunion and started performing live but no studio album news yet from RATM.
"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
Source: Billboard.com
