Soundgarden

The original Grunge superstars are back together and this sounds as fresh and foetid as it did all those years ago.

Soundgarden have teamed up with Guitar Hero and they are releasing this collection of re-issues, live stuff and never-before-released ‘stuff’ alongside the new ‘Guitar Hero : Warriors of Rock’ but I’m not sure who benefits the most from the collaboration – Soundgarden have a back catalogue that is famed for its integrity but they have never been able to put material fromn all their previous labels together while the guys at Guitar Hero aren’t short of kudos – on the other hand, who gives a wet one? This is a terrific collection by one of the seminal bands of the nineties.

Great numbers like ‘All Your Lies’ and ‘Big Dumb Sex’ or the awesomely powerful ‘Hands All Over’ come up hard against live versions and you can hear from the riffs exactly why G-H have tied up alongside the masters of Sub-Pop. It doesn't hurt to be able to get 'Superunknown', 'Black Hole Sun' and 'Dusty' in the same collection either.

There are a few previously unreleased live numbers, ‘Flower’ from a BBC session is great but the live version of ‘Jesus Christ Pose’ really has all the destructive power and complex anti-positions that the band made their own while there is only one completely unreleased track ‘Black Rain’.

So what you get is a 24 track compilation of unbeatable power and around a dozen ways to buy/play/collect it all – what is not to like – this is what we had all forgotten rock could sound like.