Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell is an American singer and musician who rose to fame as a member of Soundgarden and a solo performer. He was born in Seattle on 20 July 1964. Chris went in for music as late as in his youth when he joined several hard rock and punk rock bands as a drummer. After high school, Chris worked as cook and then became a member of Soundgarden, a group that after a few changes in the lineup and years of silence transformed into a prominent and influential band.

In Soungarden, Cornell took up the duty of a singer. His outfit ignored the punk style loved dearly by American youth and chose a slowed down and brooding music traced back to the art of Black Sabbath. The first half of the nineties was the golden era in the Soundgarden history as the musicians delivered energetically their most powerful releases Badmotorfinger (1991), Superunknown (1994), and Down on the Upside (1996). From album to album, Cornell’s vocals grew more confident and stronger. Consequently, he parted with the extreme manner characteristic of his band’s first works, and shifted to true singing instead of screaming. Chris was also a good lyrics writer, although his texts made sense only when combined with the music.

The stylistics of Soundgarden did not provide Cornell with enough space to realize all his potential and motivated him to participate in side projects. First, he organized Temple of the Dog, lasting less than three years (1990 through1992). After that, Chris participated in the recording of the cover of Jimy Hendrix’s Hey Baby (New Rising Sun), featured on the 1993 tribute collection Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix. In 1994, the load of musical activities took its toll on Cornell’s vocal chords. Avoiding the risk of damaging them, Soundgarden cancelled a portion of the scheduled concerts. Chris found the time to pen songs for other performers including the legendary Alice Cooper. In 1997 Soundgarden collapsed. Cornell began working on his solo album released in 1999 under the title Euphoria Morning. He denied the heavy guitar riffs usual for his former band, and presented a soft and melodic material fixed right for his singing. The remix of Mission (renamed to Mission 2000) was chosen for the soundtrack to Mission Impossible 2. This release was followed by Cornell’s first solo tour embracing the songs from all stages of his career.

In 2000, Chris was set to take a break from music in connection with the birth of his son, but his plans were undermined after he faced a chance to take part in a very promising project. Cornell was offered to sing with the musicians of Rage Against the Machine who were about to carry on with the new vocalist as Audioslave. In November 2002, the new formation released the self-titled album. This effort had a sensational effect in the rock music society and ran multi-platinum. The band’s sophomore long player, Out of Exile (2005), debuted in Billboard from the first place and paved the way to the follow-up Revelations (2006) to strengthen the group’s positions. The same year, citing the creative differences, Cornell left Audioslave and went to the studio to prepare his new album, Carry On. Strongly autobiographical, featuring the songs conflicting with the Audioslave format, this work saw light in 2007. Cornell’s third solo effort titled Scream was released in spring 2009. The musician experimented with the record’s sound and the result proved to be great: Scream debuted at number ten at Billboard 200. There is no doubt that this long play will please both c’ old fans and those who are just going to get acquainted with Cornell’s creativity.