Temple of the Dog - Temple of the Dog

This 1991 Seattle supergroup brought together Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden with the surviving members of Mother Love Bone (Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard) and Eddie Vedder, later of Pearl Jam. The experiment worked. Cornell shines, seeming more comfortable here on this tribute to his former roommate and deceased MLB lead singer Andrew Wood than with his own band. "Hunger Strike" and "Say Hello 2 Heaven" combine glam and grunge better than anything in Love Bone's catalog, while "Wooden Jesus" is less didactic than anything in Pearl Jam's oeuvre. Most of the songs may be about loss and addiction, but this is compelling music for black days. --Charles R. Cross Amazon.com

"Love was my drug but that's not what I died of."

Although numerous journalists, reviewers and aficionados have a penchant for dubbing Temple of the Dog the finest album that either Chris Cornell or Eddie Vedder have ever worked on, there lies an element of misguided truth in all the bluster.

Temple of the Dog is not a difficult album to love. It showcases much of what is great about the musicians involved (Soundgarden's singer Cornell and drummer Matt Cameron; and Pearl Jam's guitarist Stone Gossard, bassist Jeff Ament, lead guitarist Mike McCready and singer Vedder), and perhaps that which is unfortunately conspicuous by its absence or under-use in each band's catalogue.

The album is a requiem of sorts to Andy Wood - former roommate of Cornell and frontman for Mother Love Bone, of which Gossard and Ament were both members. Wood's death of a heroin overdose on the eve of the release of MLB's much-vaunted debut album Apple in 1990, is seen as something of a watershed moment for the burgeoning Seattle scene - the loss of an illusory innocence for the scene itself, a wake-up call for some (and sadly not others), and precipitating the birth of Pearl Jam.

The opening two tracks, `Say Hello 2 Heaven' and the epic `Reach Down' are the two that most apparently recall Wood in both a sensitive and luminous light, with the latter giving Mike McCready free-reign to solo for over 4 minutes continuously in what was effectively his debut professional recording. Similarly, `Hunger Strike' gave Vedder his debut lead vocal recording, combining with Cornell in a duet of two of their generation's finest and most distinctive voices.

Stylistically, the album sails closer to the MLB psychedelic/funk/glam-metal than any Soundgarden or Pearl Jam record has and is a refreshing counterpoint to each band's signature sound. The album is not an ode to Wood per se - with Cornell discoursing on many subjects found in his Soundgarden lyrics: the natural world and encroaching modernity and industrialisation (`Pushin Forward Back'), social inequality (the hit `Hunger Strike') and Christian evangelism (`Wooden Jesus') alongside tracks that are obliquely about Wood (`Call Me A Dog' and `Times of Trouble'), with Cornell's most graceful and sophisticated ballad (`All Night Thing') closing the proceedings.

Temple of the Dog is an album and a project however, that prospered as a result of circumstance and timing. Had Pearl Jam's debut `Ten' already have been released when this album was conceived, the impression is that it would not have been anywhere near as good. As such, Temple is a collaborative effort guided by Cornell's vision and NOT a supergroup as some would posit - there were no particular time restraints or pressures placed on the musicians; no egos to be kept in check and most importantly no subconscious attempts to out-manoeuvre each other. As Ament concludes in the liner notes, "no analyzing. No pressure. No hype. Just music to make music. Friends and a reason." May 28, 2008

ESSENTIAL GRUNGE CLASSIC....

In Seattle, the grunge movement had already gone underway a few years before it was made a national phenomemnon in the early nineties. These earlier years of the Seattle scene were alot less produced, and alot more underground sounding. Also, they scream in a lot of ways about flipping off the establishment and embracing the demons and not to mention, are excellent records. Many names on the scene at this time went on to bigger and better successes once the ball got rolling, but one of the big names in Seattle before the grunge boom was a band called Mother Love Bone. Their ride was cut short when lead singer met an all to common demise in '91.
When the scene boomed, it was apparent to many that a tribute needed to be payed to the man, and his contributions to the scene in general. The remaining members of the band put this one together, with a few of their friends from Soundgarden, and an up and comer at the time, Eddie Vedder.
I'm sure many have heard the song HUNGER STRIKE on the radio, as it still continues to get frequent radio play, but the rest of this album is an absolute classic, with song for song being a collection of hidden gems.
The album is a good line between the early grunge scene and the scene that became a huge commercial success. I recommend this to anyone who is new to bands like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam etc. and I also recommend going back a ways to bands like Mother Love Bone and any of the above bands albums before 1991. You will notice that a lot of them are a lot more free spirited, and I always see this album as one that ushered in some darker days... but thats what made grunge popular in the first place, no? A must have for alternative and grunge fans... Temple of The Dog. April 29, 2008

An Extremely Intense Album

Temple of the Dog was a one-off project put together with members of Soundgarden (Chris Cornell, Matt Cameron) and a group of of musicians who soon became known as Pearl Jam (Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready and singer Eddie Vedder). Singer Chris Cornell wrote much of the lyrics and music, making him a dominant force on this release.

The album and this project came about because it was inspired by friend/ex-Mother Love Bone singer Andrew Wood (who was a former friend/roommate and band mate to these musicians, but died of an overdose). So the album contains very insightful, powerful and emotional ballads like "Say Hello 2 Heaven" and "Hunger Strike", which show the mourning over their friend. The sizzling guitar solos and tracks along with Cornell's powerful slightly off-pitched vocals make this an extremely intense album. April 27, 2008

two words: chris cornell

Even though Temple of the Dog began as a tribute side project in the memory of Andrew Wood and only put out one studio album, it is definitely worth listening to - especially if you dig Mr. Chris Cornell, formerly of Soundgarden and Audioslave or simply just the grunge of the early nineties, since Sir Eddie Vedder has a hand in this symphony as well... July 13, 2007

Great start, but weighed down in the end by the grunge of Seattle

The highlights of this album are probably the best Seattle-based stuff to come out in the whole Seattle-fixation era, and maybe that's because this was a release done out of heart-felt effort.

The back story is quite well known by now--when Mother Love Bone spiritual center Andrew Wood died, bandmates joined with members of Soundgarden under the name Temple of the Dog for an indirect tribute--wanting to honor Andrew's spirit with music. This clearly inspired the first two tracks (and probably among the best stuff on the album), "Say Hello 2 Heaven" and "Reach Down" (which is one of the best 11-minute rock songs out there). The album continues with a couple more strong tracks, "Hunger Strike" (still listenable even after all of the overplay in the Seattle-craze days and also includes Eddie Vedder) and "Pushin' Forward Back."

Had the so-called Seattle sound always had such depth of emotion and drive, it probably would have become more of a school of influence than a passing musical fad and fashion--the first four tracks alone are worth buying this disc for. There is a unity of sound and spirit in these songs, the sense of a band that plays to each other rather than out to the crowd for attention and approval (and, let's face it, the money). Also, the range of length among these four tracks show them to be songs that define themselves, that dictate their own needed sound rather than have a format cookie-cuttered onto them. Tracks 1-4 will show you some of the highest potential Seattle grunge could have brought to the world.

But, unfortunately, after that, the album sags aplenty. I have little that keeps me going for the last 6 tracks except maybe "Your Savior," but that one doesn't even always capture my interest. Cornell's vocals feel a little more standardized, the song construction a little more hackneyed. I'll freely admit that part of this was to connect to the fun element of Mother Love Bone, and after all it's all rock and not poetry, but still, there's a lot I find I just want to skip over for the last half or so of this album.

But that's all a shame to say, because the first 25 minutes or so will really perk up your ears. Andrew Wood is properly paid homage to here, but in the end the Seattle script wins out.
June 21, 2007

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