Audioslave - Audioslave > Reviews > Set it off, set it off my children

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Not applicable
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	the finest rock singer in the business today
Disadvantages:	-

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I decided to write this review after spending a morning at work listening to our local crap FM station, and its relentlessly happy presenters, who think they are being at the cutting edge by playing Maroon 5. So to redress the balance somewhat, here is some real music to listen to.

To make your Audioslave yummy cake you will need 3/4 of Rage Against The Machine (the guitarist and rythym section) mixed with 1/4 of Soundgarden's ex vocalist, stir together with lashings of Marshall amp, place in a CD player to warm up and immediately begin to frig out to the huge sound eminating from your speakers.

Note to anyone who hasn't heard either of the above bands: attitude, sound and the extended middle finger are the three words that spring to mind. This is the album that Zeppelin never made. Rage were more about marrying hiphop to metal, Soundgarden were grunge, but this is more straightforward no frills hard rock. I tell you, if you can name me a better living rock singer than Chris Cornell, I will gladly sit through a whole Natasha Bedingfield LP.

Audioslave are Chris Cornell - vocals / Tom Morello - guitar / Tim Commerford - bass / Brad Wilk - drums

Without going into exhaustive detail on each and every track, suffice it to say that this is hard-riffing, heads-down rock music. It's something of an understatement to say Morello knows his way around a fretboard. The man is shaping up to be a 21st century guitar god. Let's pick out some of the highlights.

Cochise gets things underway. Oh, Jimmy, Jimmy Page. When you laid down the ultimate HM riff on "The Ocean" little did you know that millions of young fingers would learn that same riff too. This is basically "The Ocean" with knobs on. Joshing aside, a blockbuster of a rocker with a great chorus. And THAT riff. AND performed on Top Of The Pops.

Show Me How To Live starts off slower before launching into a huge chorus and distorted ending vocals. What You Are rolls along very nicely, building up the keys with a nice quirky middle section.

Set It Off is a rote intro/verse/chorus/verse/chorus/outro number. Done by any other band it would sound totally unoriginal. Done by these boys, however, it becomes a thing of menace, in no small part due to the lyrics. "Set this fucker off" indeed. Alright.

The mighty Shadow On The Sun apes early Soundgarden, but what the hell, why not. At 5.43 the longest tune on here allows the band to really stretch the idea from the slow opening to allow Morello to put down a gigantic riff to Cornell's repeated screaming "shadow on the sun" at the end. Ooh baby this is what we like. Light My Way reflects along similar musical lines, but is a little bit softer. Just a little.

If all this full-on sound is starting to wear you out a little, fear not because The 'Slave also manage to vary things a little on the following tracks:

What You Are rolls along very nicely, building up the keys to another huge riff, but then throws in a nice quirky middle section. Like A Stone is the big singalong number on here, "in your house, I long to be, room by room, patiently, I'll wait for you there, like a stone", no big riffing on here, the bass and percussion take the load.

I Am The Highway also takes the slower road (sorry!!) "I am not your rolling wheels, I am the highway", sings Cornell in an impassioned performance. Audioslave get almost funky on Hypnotize, "you can make your load a little lighter, all you gotta do is share the wealth", I think we can all go along with that sentiment. Topping the slower tunes though is Getaway Car, a great reflective song with simple backing.

A couple of tracks don't quite match the standards set above, Gasoline is pretty standard fare, Exploder is a retread of Set It Off, not too bad though, and Bring Em Back Alive is a little bit samey after a while.

I don't know if we'll get another album from Audioslave or not, but if this was just a one-off it's very good. Hard rock fans should lap this up, if they haven't already. An excellent album from people who really know how to play their instruments.