By: Gary Graff
1/15/2013
Soundgarden has not hesitated to add songs from "King Animal", the Seattle group's first new album in 16 years, to its live shows -- and much more than just the single, "Been Away Too Long."
Frontman Chris Cornell tells us that he and his bandmates, who reunited in 2010, have been gratified not only by how well the songs have gone over but also how they sound alongside the group's iconic material from the 80s and 90s:
"I suppose the biggest surprise almost came after the fact, once we started adding new songs into a set list how much that kind of changed the feeling, to me, of an overall set...I'm not sure I really comprehended how different these songs are than some of the other things we've done, and you could tell. We were playing them mixed in with songs that were anywhere from 13 to 22 years old, and that felt really great.”
“We've never been a band that started out trying to figure out what our specific identity, musically, was and repeat that. We've always been reaching, and we're still doing that, and it really was evident when we started mixing in new songs with the old songs on the context of a rehearsal and a show."
"King Animal" debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 chart when it was released in November, while "Been Away Too Long" topped the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
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