I disagree completely. I believe it's much more restrictive to write for a vocalist like Chris Cornell than Zach de la Rocha. As Audioslave, Tom and the band had to be more concerned with melodies that complimented Cornell's style. In contrast, RATM could throw down any kind of riff that sounded cool, and Zach de la Rocha could put whatever vocals he wanted on top of that. Zach's vocals took a back seat to the riffs and Tom-craziness, which were the real reason's RATM kicked ass IMO, where as the Audioslave riffs and Tom-craziness had to be toned down so not to overshadow Cornell's vocals.toastman wrote: And I liked Audioslave, it gave Morello room to explore musically, rather than doing the same thing over and over like in Rage. And if you are complaining about Audioslave's music, you are complaining about the members of Rage, not Chris Cornell, because they had an agreement: they write the music, he writes the lyrics.
Having said that...I loved RATM, I loved Soundgarden, and I somewhat enjoyed Audioslave's first album. I never thought Cornell meshed well with the members of RATM, and I figured they'd break up sooner than they did. I didn't care for Cornell's previous solo album, so I couldn't care less about his upcoming one. I would, however, be fully on board with a Soundgarden reunion.
