Audioslave CD some real rock

When Zach de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine, I was depressed. The band singlehandedly saved me in high school, gave me hope that there was something beyond alt-rock and that someone cared about what was going on in the world. Tom Morello blew me away (still does) with his crazy technique. Together, De la Rocha, Morello, Brad Wilk and Tim Commerford were tight and inspired me to keep at least getting on with life and high school when I hated it. Then I got to college and Zach left the band.\nSo you can imagine my hesitation when I heard Chris Cornell was to front the new Rage. Nothing against Soundgarden or anything, but grunge rock is just not "Take the Power Back" or "Killing in the Name Of" or Battle of Los Angeles.\nEnter Audioslave -- a mixture of Rage's passionate crunching and Cornell's grunge melodicism (and non-political lyrics). Believe it or not, the self-titled debut sounds exactly like you would think it would. The first riff of "Cochise" screams Rage, until Cornell enters in with a vocal melody (something highly unnatural if you're expecting De la Rocha's rants). Surprisingly, it doesn't sound that bad, and there is enough Morello/Wilk/Tim C. action on the album to keep a Rage fan reasonably satisfied (check out Morello's solo on "The Last Remaining Light").\nI'm not going to talk about the lyrics or Cornell, because I really don't care that much. All I can say about his participation is he didn't piss me off (neither did Rick Rubin). \nAll in all, this album is a little better than OK. For the Rage fan, it's not Rage and never will be, but there is enough crunching to keep you somewhat amused. As Morello said in an interview in Guitar World (check it out), Audioslave isn't just the revamping of Rage with Cornell; it is a completely separate band. \nAudioslave isn't revolutionary, but at least it's real rock, something that the mainstream audience needs right now. Maybe it's time for the guys of Rage to fight this new battle -- making decently good music accessible to a mainstream audience.