When a band consists of 75% of the members of Rage Against The Machine, and their final member and singer is the ex singer of the late, great Soundgarden – they’re never likely to release anything bad are they? As expected, this release is a great display of fine rocking, with Chris Cornell’s vocals sounding as amazing as ever. As much as I love Rage Against The Machine – the idea of them with a singer rather than a rapper never fails to put a smile on my face. I love Zack De La Rocha and have been looking out for his material ever since Rage Against The Machine split up, however the idea of a Rage Against The Machine with a singer always excites me greatly, especially when that singer happens to be the amazing Chris Cornell. You can’t better Audioslave really – they are an almost perfect rock band with incredible style and impeccable judgement over what tracks to include on their albums.
This album kicks off with the amazing ‘Your Time Has Come’ and throughout its duration never fails to impress with its fast, exciting and truly infectious sound. This album is uplifting, strong and is verging on perfection – seriously this album has it all, awesome guitar solos, super drum beats, some of the best vocals you will ever hear, and some truly cracking bass work. Every track is a blinder on this album – not a single track disappoints, with the band never failing to put a smile on my face throughout the entire album. Generally I can not listen to albums in their entirety – I will find myself skipping parts of tracks, or skipping them in their entirety but that just doesn’t happen with this album. I can listen to it from start to finish, feeling truly exasperated and happy as hell at the end of it.
The first single to be released from this album will be the awesome ‘Be Yourself.’ This really is a fine single, and although it’s a lot softer than 2002’s Self Titled debut album debut single ‘Cochise,’ however it is just as amazing and rivals it in terms of quality and all round general finesse. It is a strong effort and sees the band have a good crack at melodic, heartfelt rock music. It should go down well with the rock world when it is released on June 6th and will be hopefully getting frequent radio airplay before then.
There is never a dull moment on this release – Audioslave are frequently pressing the right buttons and doing all the right things to get me literally jumping around the room with excitement. This album fills me with energy and makes me glad to be alive; there is just so much to be gained from listening to this album. It really is a fine CD and I can see it being one of my favourite releases of the year. Audioslave are a fine bunch of musicians and in ‘Out Of Exile’ have created a truly amazing album.
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UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.
