Soundgarden tease album on the anniversary of Chris Cornell’s death

Soundgarden have marked the eighth anniversary of Chris Cornell’s passing with a big hint at their much talked-about unreleased album.

Having seemingly – and hopefully – resolved the band’s long-running dispute with Vicky Cornell, bassist Ben Shepherd took to Instagram yesterday (May 18) to reveal that he’d been listening to a song written by the late frontman and drummer Matt Cameron called The Road Less Traveled, which is taken from “our album that has yet to be named”.

Ben said that “just hearing Chris’ voice helps, I know he did that for everyone he knew… help them, he did for me, filled with self-doubt and indebtedness and in just his tone knew what I was going through and forgave me like he always did even when he was older”.

Reflecting on his times in the studio with his Soundgarden bandmates, and following up 2012’s final studio album King Animal, Ben continued: “I am very blessed by my loved ones and very honored to have known or worked with each of my brothers Kim [Thayil], Matt and Chris in this path of music, and life, of loves and losses, righteousness and folly, but I can tell you, it feels good and invigorating to hear Chris singing from over that horizon and hear the mighty… mighty life, of souls sharing.

“To hear, as a fan… and band member, a song or two Chris brought in a few years ago turn before my very ears and finger blisters into a full-blown Soundgarden tune is like feeling a glacier fall away off your chest.

“We all have a lot of work to go through in this life… but we are all to a man trying our best and to do each and every one of us proud, you Chris, are right here with us. We all miss you brother, see you when we do.”

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