Among all the awesome metal supergroups that have ever been formed, Audioslave was one of the best. The band was active from 2001 to 2007 – there was one reunion show in 2017 – and its members consisted of three-fourths of Rage Against the Machine alongside Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell.
As a four-piece act with the majority of members being from RATM, one might try to argue with you that the band was essentially Rage Against the Machine. Of course, such an argument ignores a whole lot of nuance; for example, Cornell is a much different vocalist than Zack de la Rocha.
Although Cornell was an amazingly talented singer, he may not have had the most ideal voice to fully capture the potency de la Rocha brings to RATM’s music. We mention this because, back in 2005, Audioslave performed Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name” during a concert, and while the rest of the band sounded spot on, Cornell sounded a little… off.
Per footage that captured this performance, you can clearly see that Cornell was into the song and brought a lot of great energy to his singing.
That said, Cornell was an astounding grunge vocalist who had a particular way of portraying emotion and intensity through his voice.
When it comes to attempting to emulate the aggression that de la Rocha provides through his vocal performances, Cornell struggles somewhat to match it. That said, you may feel otherwise once you check out the footage.
Below you will find the video of Audioslave performing the Rage Against the Machine song “Killing in the Name.”
Speaking of Rage Against the Machine, we recently mentioned the act in our “10 Greatest Politically-Charged Metal Bands Ever” feature.
If you are curious to find out what other metal bands made the list, follow the link below the video.
