The music of Soundgarden and Chris Cornell will always hold a special place for me. The first two concerts I ever attended were him with his solo band, and before Cornell’s passing my dad and I had seen him a grand total of eight times between his own band, solo acoustic performances, Soundgarden, and the Temple of the Dog reunion. My dad even has his portrait tattooed with “no one sings like you anymore” inscribed underneath. There was no other voice in rock music like his, and likewise there was no other band like Soundgarden. As much as they were a part of the Seattle grunge scene, their music took inspiration from a wide variety of influences, from Led Zeppelin to punk to early sludge and doom metal. For the latest in the “Redux” series from Magnetic Eye Records (having previously released cover compilations for Alice in Chains, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, and more), a plethora of doom and stoner metal artists including Ufomammut, Darkher, and Witch Ripper have recorded their iterations of both Soundgarden’s 1994 magnum opus and more with Superunkown Redux and Best of Soundgarden Redux. Not everything here shines quite as bright as the Seattle quartet did, but there’s still some worthy renditions to be found on these two albums.
To get this out of the way right off the bat, I’ll say that none of the numerous vocalists on these two albums attempt to outdo Chris Cornell, or even come close in most cases. Valley of the Sun’s “Superunknown” nails Chris’s range in that particular song pretty well and Freedom Hawk’s “Loud Love” does a solid job evoking the Ozzy-meets-Plant of Soundgarden’s early days, but that’s about it. Thankfully there’s only a couple vocal performances on this album that are close to painful — “The Day I Tried to Live” and “Outshined,” very unfortunate in both cases considering these are two of Soundgarden’s best tracks. Chris Cornell was a once-in-a-lifetime vocalist who could never be truly replicated, so the challenge for these various artists comes in doing Soundgarden justice by other means. Given the nature of the acts chosen here, this is primarily accomplished by taking Soundgarden’s music and making it heavier.
Ufomammut’s take on opener “Let Me Drown” begins Superunknown Redux with one of the biggest departures from the original version found on these albums; the verses are instead replaced by quiet, moody, atmospherics that ultimately lead to a crushing, slower doom take on the primary riff. As drastic a change it is, this ultimately proves to be one of the better tracks between both Redux albums — it also eases the listener into making sense of the fact that these are not all going to be 1:1 Soundgarden covers. High Priest’s “My Wave” is worth mentioning simply for making one of my favorite SG songs so damn heavy, while retaining the beautiful psychedelic essence of the chorus through both wah-heavy guitar and the multilayered vocals.
One of the surprising feats Superunknown Redux manages to accomplish is redeeming the two tracks I’ve always considered the black sheep on one of my all-time favorite albums; “Head Down” and “Half.” The doom riffage and ethereal vocals courtesy of Frayle recontextualize the former in a positive way, and the latter is envisioned as a more straightforward stoner/doom song by Dozer (while keeping the Eastern melodies intact). Meanwhile the one Soundgarden song on Superunknown that could have been considered a doom metal song in its original iteration, “4th of July,” instead features some gurgling throat singing and only acoustic guitar; it’s interesting, but I’ll stick with Thou’s version. Given the nature of Chris Cornell’s passing a cover of closing track “Like Suicide” requires great care and sensitivity; Darkher knocks it out the park with a haunting cover featuring little else but her vocals, some soft acoustic guitar, and strings. Aside from some minor missteps, Superunkown Redux does a great job of paying tribute to such a phenomenal album.
Perhaps it’s due to the fact that so many of the best Soundgarden songs are on Superunknown, or the omission of some songs that one might think are no-brainers for a stoner doom tribute to Soundgarden (“Beyond the Wheel,” “Hands All Over,” “Get on the Snake”), but Best of Soundgarden Redux just doesn’t hit the mark as hard its companion album. Featuring another 15 tracks from all over Soundgarden’s pre-reunion career, from the Screaming Life EP through Down on the Upside, these renditions tend to lack the necessary energy present from the Soundgarden versions (particularly their earlier days).
That’s not to say there aren’t any highlights also present on this album. Witch Ripper’s “Rusty Cage” injects an epic twin guitar harmony into the introduction, and transforms the second half of the song into an extended doom dirge. Lamassu’s “Searching With My Good Eye Closed” brings both heavy riffs and a solid vocal performance, and closer “Room a Thousand Years Wide” by Restless Spirit ends the album on a suitably chunky note. These are three of six Badmotorfinger tracks present on Best of Soundgarden Redux, and unfortunately the others — “Slaves and Bulldozers”, “Jesus Christ Pose,” and “Outshined” — are nowhere near as interesting (a real shame considering these are also some tremendous Soundgarden tracks).
While Best of Soundgarden Redux might be more of a lukewarm experience overall, this doesn’t take away the fact that Superunknown Redux is a good tribute to an even better album. If you’ve ever wanted to know what Soundgarden but heavier sounds like, don’t skip over this album. It’s great to see a large number of artists (most which were unknown to me, not being the biggest stoner/doom fan) hit the studio to pay tribute to one of the greats and succeed in many cases. The spirit of Soundgarden and Chris Cornell can rest easy knowing this music lives on in the hearts of so many. Loud love!
— Colin
Superunknown Redux and Best of Soundgarden Redux will be available July 14 on Magnetic Eye Records.
Nine Circles 