Black day

Sad to read of Chris Cornell's passing, particularly now they're reporting he took his own life.

Songs like the one above are open about depression and that's why the song still resonates with me around 25 years after I first heard it.

Cornell singing seemed effortless and the way it maintains that fry up to the high range is really distinctive. Watching this recent version of 'My Wave' brought to mind memories of jamming this song with the Pongrass Bros in the mid '90s. I still love how the track opens with a part that comes in on the offbeat, so the first time when I heard the drums come in it really messed with my expectations.



Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger album was among the first CDs I bought with money from Christmas in 1991. It's still a phenomenal album and I expect a lot of people will now also revisit it.



The band had been one I'd wanted to hear since seeing 'Hands All Over' on Rage.

I loved that slow riffing of Soundgarden, like when I bought Badmotorfinger 'Rusty Cage' left me wondering if I was going to return the album, before hearing 'Outshined' and 'Jesus Christ Pose' -- which seemed incredibly heavy at the time and grabbed the attention of many liking thrash metal.



I saw Soundgarden play at the Big Day Out in 1994 but only for a few minutes as I was desperate to get a good spot for Primus, who were playing in the Hordern Pavilion.

My memory of the band was watching Cornell playing guitar and simultaneously hitting notes that seemed on the edge of a male vocal range. I recall thinking "how is that even possible?" before being left speechless while watching Primus as they dropped Metallica's 'Master of Puppets' into the middle of 'Pudding Time'.

Another musical highlight at a Big Day Out was seeing Rage Against The Machine play and Cornell would form Audioslave with members of that band, leading to the beautiful lament below.

Tom Morello's guitar work is exemplary too -- I think he's the Hendrix of our age.



If there's any message or meaning to be taken from Cornell's passing, for me it's that now is a good time to check in on the friends who I used to listen to Soundgarden with and ask how things are going.