King Animal is the sixth studio album by American rock band Soundgarden, released
on November 13, 2012 on Seven Four Entertainment and Republic Records in
the US and Vertigo Records in the rest of the world. Produced by both the band
and Adam Kasper, the album is the band's first in sixteen years, and the first
not to be released on A&M Records since 1988's Ultramega OK. However, Republic,
Vertigo and A&M are all owned by Universal Music Group.
Background On January 1, 2010, Cornell alluded to a
Soundgarden reunion via his Twitter, writing: "The 12-year break is over and
school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again!"
The message linked to a website that features a picture of the group
performing live and a place for fans to enter their e-mail addresses to get
updates on the reunion. Entering that information unlocks an archival video
for the song "Get on the Snake", from Soundgarden's second studio album,
1989's Louder Than Love. In November 2010, Soundgarden was the second musical
guest on the show Conan, making it their first television appearance in 13 years.
In February 2011 it was announced on Soundgarden's homepage that they had
started recording a new album. On March 1, 2011, Chris Cornell confirmed that
Adam Kasper would produce the new album. Four days later, the band stated it
would consist of material that was "90 percent new" and the rest consisting of
updated versions of older ideas. They also noted that they had 12 to 14 songs
that were "kind of ready to go". Although Cameron claimed the album would
be released in 2011, the recording was prolonged as Thayil said that "the more
we enjoy it, the more our fans should end up enjoying it." Thayil also
reported that some songs sound "similar in a sense to Down on the Upside" and
that the album would be "picking up where we left off. There are some heavy
moments, and there are some fast songs." The next day, Cornell reported that the
new album would not be released until the spring of 2012.
In April 2011, Soundgarden announced a summer tour consisting of four dates in
July, and was also headliner for Voodoo Experience at City Park in New Orleans
Halloween weekend 2011. It was announced in March 2012 via the band's official
Facebook page that they would be including a new song on the soundtrack
of the movie The Avengers, based on the franchise by Marvel Comics. The song was
titled "Live to Rise" and marked the first newly recorded song that the band
have released since reforming in 2010. "Live to Rise" was released as a free
download on iTunes April 17, 2012. Also in March 2012, it was announced that
Soundgarden would headline the Friday night of the Hard Rock Calling Festival
the following July. On May 5, 2012, just before The Offspring began playing their
set, the band appeared as a special guest at the 20th annual KROQ Weenie
Roast in Irvine, California. Later that month, Soundgarden told Rolling Stone
they were eyeing an October 2012, release for their new album. On
September 17, 2012, it was announced that the album would be titled, King
Animal and would be released on November 13, 2012. Explaining the title King
Animal, Cornell declared that it relates to how the how band "were a big fish in
a small pond, and we sort of graduated. There was a sense of us feeling like it
was us four against the world. We clearly had that from the very
beginning. In some weird way after all this time, we persevered. The album kind
of stands out as a symbol and an indication of that."
Release and promotion For the release of King Animal,
Soundgarden signed a deal with Loma Vista Recordings, as CEO Tom Whalley
preferred self-contained acts that write their own songs, play their own
instruments and sing their own songs. Distribution was handled by Loma Vista's
partner Republic Records. The album's cover and subsequent art direction is
based on a sculpture by Josh Graham, who Kim Thayil invited after seeing the
artwork he did for his band A Storm of Light. Featuring animal skulls above a
field of flowers in a snowy forest, the sculpture "Night of the Last Equinox"
features a recurring motif of Graham's art, the juxtaposition of life and death
and how "everything between there is such a massive part of the human
condition.” Chris Cornell stated that the art deals with Graham's
interpretation of the songs, which somehow fit the band's frequent moody
lyrics with an outdoor theme. Graham also did the animated backdrops for
Soundgarden's tour, and directed the music video for the album's first
single, "Been Away Too Long". Band photography was done by the band manager
Don VanCleave. To promote the album, Whalley decided to
focus on how Soundgarden exploited "an emotional connection from a musician and
songwriter to an audience", doing a track-by-track narrative for King Animal
at Seattle's Moore Theatre, and performing three intimate concerts at
New York's Irving Plaza, Toronto's Phoenix Concert Theater and Los Angeles'
Fonda Theatre. "Been Away Too Long" was the first single to be released from
King Animal on September 27, 2012. "Been Away Too Long" and "By Crooked Steps"
were used in promotional spots on ESPN for Monday Night Football, and the
former was heard in an episode of Sons of Anarchy. On October 31,
2012,"Non-State Actor" was released through the official Soundgarden YouTube
channel. The video for the song features an American flag waving back and forth
with the King Animal logo replacing the stars. The week before its release, the
album was streamed in its entirety for free on iTunes. On January 29, 2013, the
band released a music video for "By Crooked Steps", which was directed by
Dave Grohl. On September 4, 2013, the band released a music video for "Halfway
There". = Versions=
Along with CD, LP and digital download releases, King Animal was also issued on
a deluxe box set featuring the CD with three demos as bonus tracks, the double
vinyl, a DVD of the band's performance at Hyde Park, and five lithographs. Best
Buy carried a special edition CD featuring five demos. On 2013,
Soundgarden issued for Record Store Day, King Animal Demos a limited edition pink
vinyl featuring the early takes on six songs from the album, as well as King
Animal Plus, featuring 5 live tracks recorded for Live from the Artists Den
at The Wiltern, Los Angeles and an acoustic cut by Cornell and Shepherd
recorded for CIMX-FM in Detroit. On Record Store Day 2013,
Reception = Critical response=
King Animal received positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an
average score of 70, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on
32 reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave it a positive review by
saying, "King Animal is a big, bright album, executed with precision and
professionalism. The band members sound older, not quite as loud, and possess a
keener sense of good taste, and it sounds as if they've aged together,
which is a testament to their innate chemistry. Simply put, Soundgarden sound
like they belong together; Cornell sounds richer, fuller when anchored by
drummer Matt Cameron, bassist Ben Shepherd, and the deceptively sinewy and
brainy guitarist Kim Thayil, whose presence has sorely been missed over the
past decade." Stuart Berman of Pitchfork Media gave the album a 5.9 out of 10,
saying "The best hope for King Animal was that Soundgarden would be inspired
enough by their spiritual successors to want to outdo them, and set a new
benchmark for ambitious aggression. Instead, the group's first album since
1996 just sounds like the one they would've churned out in 1998." Hilary
Saunders of Paste gave the album 7.0 out of 10, saying "Comeback albums are
notoriously difficult to conceptualize and actualize and King Animal took more
than a year to create after the band spent a decade and a half on hiatus.
While this record lacks the canonizing tracks like "Jesus Christ Pose", "Black
Hole Sun", "Spoonman" and "Burden in My Hand", Soundgarden deserves to be
commended for recapturing the feeling of grunge and reintroducing it today." Luke
Turner of BBC Music gave the album a positive review, saying "King Animal
undeniably draws its strength from the band’s accessible Superunknown era, but
also takes Soundgarden somewhere fresh." Chris DeVille of The A.V. Club gave the
album a B-, saying "More often, though, King Animal affirms what a potent
formula this band established. It’s neither a trainwreck nor a masterpiece,
but it stirs the senses in all the right ways." Matt Melis of Consequence of
Sound gave the album a C-, saying "Production issues aside, this record
proves that Soundgarden still have their muscle but also hints that they are in
the process of figuring out how to flex it again. For every realized track like
“Worse Dreams”, with its circular vocal phrasings and slippery riffing, there’s
a jam like “Eyelid’s Mouth” that completely loses its identity — in this
case, via an almost painful chorus that asks, “Who let the river run dry?”
Still, there’s more than enough merit found in King Animal to ensure that any
future tweets by Chris Cornell about new Soundgarden music will confidently be
filed under #reallygoodnews." Michael Christopher of The Phoenix gave the
album three out of four stars, saying "On the whole, King Animal is a welcome
return, and though it doesn't reinvent the wheel, it reminds us why these guys
were considered the architects of the Seattle scene." Richard Trapunski of Now
gave the album four out of five stars, saying "King Animal doesn’t sound like a
nostalgia-fed cash grab, nor is it poisoned by the desperate commercialism
of Cornell’s post-Soundgarden projects. Instead, it picks up where 1996’s Down
On The Upside left off, layering Cornell’s distinct howl over psychedelic
textures, off-kilter time signatures and heavy, chugging riffs courtesy of
way-underrated guitarist Kim Thayil." Scott McLennan of The Boston Globe gave
the album a mixed review, saying "There's nothing bad about these 13
tracks, but nothing truly remarkable either. It's been 16 years since singer
Chris Cornell, guitarist Kim Thayil, bassist Ben Shepherd, and drummer Matt
Cameron applied their combined talents to new songs, and while the old
chemistry sounds intact the material is not particularly combustible." Tim Karan
of the Alternative Press gave the album three and a half stars out of five,
saying "It’s difficult to imagine a new Soundgarden album that would sound
startlingly different from King Animal. It’s right in line with the band’s
natural progression; so much so that it’s almost difficult to believe it
didn’t come out a decade ago. Is it as evocative and emotive as their earlier
albums? Not quite. But it’s new Soundgarden songs that sound like old
Soundgarden songs—and if you’re of a certain generation or disposition,
that’s been a long time coming." Jonathan Keefe of Slant Magazine gave
the album three out of five stars, saying "King Animal doesn't contain any
standout tracks that justify Soundgarden's comeback or which rank as
essential additions to the band's very strong catalogue. The album is less a
triumphant return than an example of what happens to most middle-aged rock
bands: They've returned as a slightly more conservative version of what made
them famous in the first place." = Commercial performance=
King Animal sold 83,000 copies in the United States in its first week of
release to land at position No. 5 on the Billboard 200 chart, making it the third
highest position of Soundgarden's career behind their previous two studio albums,
Superunknown and Down on the Upside, which landed at position Nos. 1 and 2,
respectively. The album has to date reached the top ten on the Australian
and German Albums Chart, the top fifteen on the albums charts of Ireland and
Norway, and the top thirty on the albums charts of the Netherlands, Sweden and
the United Kingdom. Track listing
All lyrics written by Chris Cornell, except where noted.
Personnel Soundgarden
Matt Cameron – drums, percussion, Moog, backing vocals
Chris Cornell – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, mandolin
Ben Shepherd – bass guitar, additional guitar, baritone guitar, backing vocals
Kim Thayil – lead guitar, mandolin, horn arrangements
Additional musicians Adam Kasper - piano, tambura
Jeff McGrath - trumpet Greg Powers - tenor and bass trombone
Brad Stevens - tenor and baritone saxophone
Bubba Dupree - stun guitar Bullet - additional vocals
Mike McCready – additional guitar Technical personnel
Adam Kasper – producer Soundgarden – producer
Joe Barresi – mixing, additional production
Nate Yaccino – engineer Sam Hofstedt – engineer
Josh Evans – engineer, studio assistant Jay Follette – studio assistant
Neil Hundt – studio assistant Gregg Keplinger – studio assistant
Jun Murakawa – mixing assistant Chris Cornell – additional recording
Ted Jensen – mastering Josh Graham – album cover sculpture,
album cover photography and design Don Vancleave – band photography
Charts See also
King Animal Demos References