At long last we come to the platinum-selling Down On The Upside, the final chapter in the Soundgarden catalogue. There was much turmoil amongst the band due to creative direction and differing opinions between Thayil and Cornell. Cornell wished to stray from the heaviness Soundgarden was known for to explore more sounds. This is clear on this album as it's a very different/softer sounding album for Soundgarden. The grunge is for the most part gone and now we have things like mandolins incorporated into some songs. More unorthodox guitar tunings were used, including C-G-C-G-G-E for songs "Pretty Noose" and "Burden In My Hand". Further tension was created as Cornell was married to Soundgarden/Alice In Chains manager, Susan Silver. This would be enough for the band to announce it would be splitting up, but not all hope was lost as it has recently been announced that the original Soundgarden lineup has returned after 12 years to tour (they headlined Lollapalooza 2010). As it stands now, Soundgarden will release a retrospective album entitled Telephantasm on September 28th. It will contain one new unreleased track entitled "Black Rain", and let me tell you, it is bad ass! Returning to Down On The Upside, while it did not match the sales of Superunknown, it still remains a classic and a must-have for any Soundgarden fan.
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