Rock is Dead

Deader than dead. And the travesty of the most recent work by Audioslave entitled Out of Exile is the headstone. Truthfully rock has been slowly dying since the mid-90's when the alternative rock movement gave way to the rap/rock fusion wave of such notables as Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock. Devotees proclaimed its resurgence early in the new millennium with the rise of the garage bands, but it was only a temporary reprieve from the inevitable.

And after hearing Out of Exile, I am sad to say the end is here. It's simple: the album is trash, pure and simple unoriginal garbage. Nothing sticks out, there are no distinguishing tracks at all. And the true tragedy lies in the musicians behind the band. First, you have Chris Cornell, arguably one of the five greatest frontmen of rock in the 90's, and then you have Tom Morello and the remnants of one of the greatest rock groups of all time: Rage Against the Machine.

Obviously this is going to create high expectations, and although their first self entitled album was pretty good, it too was not that distinguishable. The drum smacking, guitar pumping refrains on tracks like Show Me How to Live, Cochise and Shadow of the Sun are mesmerizing, phenomenal even... but the verses lacked anything to hold onto. It was easy to forget you were even listening to them... a problem you never had with Soundgarden or Rage.

So after a few years of touring you would think they could step it up a notch and put out an album that was truly inspirational... a testimony to the talent assembled in this group. Yet Out of Exile isn't even a step backwards... it's a flat out trite, boring and all around terrible album. None of the songs make use of the talents of the band- any high school garage band members could be substituted in with no problem on any of the songs, and even Cornell's voice seems to be under utilized.

Back in the 60's when the Beatle's were dropping albums left and right there was a marked shift even among musicians away from the more standard American popular music forms such as jazz, over to this new musical experience called rock n' roll. Nearly half a century later, this music listener is starting the migration back to jazz. Rock, you are dead to me.