AudioslaveBand Guide
Active 2001–2007 · Los Angeles, California · Hard Rock / Alternative Metal
Audioslave were one of the most commercially successful and most sonically distinctive rock supergroups ever assembled — Chris Cornell's extraordinary four-octave voice over Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk's post-RATM rhythm attack, producing three albums of hard rock that were simultaneously arena-ready and genuinely heavy. This is the complete guide.
Who Are Audioslave?
Audioslave were a hard rock supergroup formed in Los Angeles in 2001, bringing together Chris Cornell — vocalist of Soundgarden, one of the most powerful voices in rock history — with the rhythm section of Rage Against the Machine: Tom Morello on guitar, Tim Commerford on bass and Brad Wilk on drums. The combination produced something genuinely distinctive: the political ferocity of RATM channelled into a more melodically expansive hard rock format through Cornell's voice, which gave the arrangements a emotional range and a sonic scale that neither band could fully achieve without the other's contribution.
The three albums they produced between 2002 and 2006 collectively sold over 15 million copies worldwide, placing Audioslave among the most commercially significant hard rock acts of the 2000s. Their self-titled debut, released in November 2002, remains the most consistent of the three and contains the songs most people cite as their introduction to the band.
The band dissolved in 2007 when Cornell cited "irresolvable personality conflicts" — a dissolution that became permanent when Cornell died in May 2017. Morello, Commerford and Wilk have since reformed Rage Against the Machine; Cornell's voice remains irreplaceable in both Soundgarden and Audioslave.
Start with Like a Stone — the most immediately beautiful and most emotionally resonant track in the catalogue. Then the self-titled debut as a full album. Revelations (2006) is the most accessible entry for listeners coming from Cornell's Soundgarden work.
◉ In Memory of Chris Cornell (1964–2017)
Chris Cornell died on 18 May 2017, aged 52, in Detroit following a Soundgarden concert. He was one of the greatest rock vocalists of any era — a four-octave tenor capable of extraordinary delicacy and full-force aggression within the same song — and his death was felt across every part of rock music his voice had touched across three decades: Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, Audioslave, his solo career and countless collaborations. Audioslave's three albums exist as a specific document of what his voice could do in the specific context of the RATM rhythm section, and they are worth hearing for that reason alone, independently of any other claim they might make on the listener's attention.
Members
Band History
Discography
The Audioslave Sound
Audioslave occupy a specific space in the rock landscape — heavier than most arena rock acts of the 2000s, more melodically developed than RATM, and carrying Cornell's voice in a context that gave it more harmonic space than Soundgarden's heavier arrangements always provided. Tom Morello's guitar in Audioslave is notably different from his RATM work: the political urgency of RATM demanded an aggressive, textural approach, while Cornell's melodic range invited a more expansive, harmonically responsive style. The toggle-switch tricks are still present but serve the songs rather than defining them.