Why it’s taken a road-legal teenager’s lifespan to drop another Soundgarden album is a Chris Cornell enigma. But here we are with King Animal about to drop on November 13, and the Seattle hearts graciously previewing the entire return-to-gnar roots via iTunes. The whole crew’s back. Even Matt Cameron, what with Pearl Jam hibernating for a bit. Cornell has been telling tales of King Nothing the title being “more of a feeling” rather than “anything specific.” But clearly, as anyone who’s heard the lead single and track on the album, “Been Away Too Long,” there is a thread of unleashing the grunge beast that won over the underground in the first place, Cornell throating pseudo Slim Shadyish:
Hey, no one knows me
No one saves me
No one loves or hates me
I’ve been away for too long
This place has a sṗecial kind of falling apart
Like they put the whole thing together in the dark
No one knows where the edge of the knife is
And no one knows where intelligent life is