Let me say this right away. I love your music and your sound. You are all very talented musicians. I am also a huge RATM and Soundgarden fan. That doesnt mean Im so shallow as to compare this to that. All good things must change and progress. And I think the mix of talent is inspiring musically. My problem is this: In the most caustic age of war, death, discrimination, inhumanity and corporate/nationalistic takeover of peoples rights and many other injustices, your music and your message is strangely quiet (Not entirely but irritatingly so.) and it couldnt have happened at a worse time in our history.

            Maybe I just dont get it. I dont see how you can go from reaching millions of listeners screaming Wake Up when our country is crumbling to pieces as the very ideals you helped to instill in me and millions of others are ripped apart by fascist assholes that have executed a coup d'État to take over this country from the true majority and real American values.

            I know you are working with SOAD and they are obviously more outwardly activist than many groups but again not so nearly as much as rage. And yet NIN, A Perfect Circle, Eminem, Public Enemy (especially Chuck D), TOOL and many others are dropping a song here or there that is eye-opening or informative enough to kick a person in the ass and get them going!

            Chris Cornell must have some opinion about all this. As a big Supersonics fan (I remember the picture with Sam Perkins was it?) Chris, hailing from Seattle, should be exposed to a rich history of activism. Anyone remember black masks and RIOTS in 1999 over the WTO and globalization? This was the first real American rioting and outward expression of anger at the injustice of corporate promotion of sweatshops and the crippling of labor laws.

            Im singling out Chris because of his background with Soundgarden. While Chris didnt come into this project from a group like RAGE he sure as hell had some fire in him at one point. Anyone remember TEMPLE OF THE DOG and that most popular song HUNGER STRIKE?

            The point is this. You have a voice that reaches millions of people. You have experience with the bullshit this country is going through now. I can blog all day long and reach 20 or 30 a day. I can get through my schooling and in my early 30s and try to break through to make more of a difference. But you bastards gave it away. You gave away a voice that reached out and made them think.

            Audioslave isnt meant to be much of anything but good music (with just a light salting of anarchy). A lot of people have said that you are now a bunch of rich pop-artists getting richer but Im not going to let you off that easily. You all have a damn responsibility to people just like we the people have a responsibility to VOTE! All too often we take these responsibilities too lightly. You should be angry and disgusted at what is going on in the world and you should shout that out as loud as you can. Otherwisewhats the point? Weve already got enough distractions to last us a lifetime. And you know this country is screwed when our measure of the war and only interaction with it (it being the War on Terror, The Afghanistan War, The Iraq War and the newly formed Israel vs. Lebanon (Hezbollah) war) is our dismay at the rise in gas prices while tens to hundreds of thousands die or are maimed.

            But we dont want to hear all that. Personally I feel that Audioslave has a meaning in name if nothing else. Your sound has made you slaves to the pop-rock culture regardless of your talent. It is a far cry and a disgrace from what you all used to be. I know you perform benefit concerts and still promote good causes but damn. Its just too watered down in an age this insane.

            -Posted by an original Grunge/Alternative fanboy. (whisper it anger is a gift.)

 

Very Well Said.
 

While the points made look valid, they seem and feel politically charged with the wrong fuel and intentional upon 'demanding' that a performing artist(s)/band has a responsibility to join a cause that they may otherwise have separated themselves from, intentionally.

I am a firm believer (and take in mind that this is just my own opinion) that entertainers have NO responsibility to do anything BUT entertain. To say that someone has a 'damn responsibility' to use their voice to place themselves on one particular side of an argument is against the purpose of what an entertainer really should do. I believe Audioslave is doing the right thing by purposefully staying in the entertaining side of business, and not distancing themselves from a major portion of their core fanbase.

On a political note, I, being neither truly Republican or Democrat (yet leaning more Republican in standard), absolutely LOVE both Rage Against the Machine and Soundgarden (the latter having been one of my three favorite and meaningful bands since 1994). I have also loved Audioslave since the day they debuted their first self-titled album. I loved the fire that burned in the de la Rocha's lyrics - you could really feel the pain and suffering for the parties with which they often sang for. Yet Soundgarden stood apart from RATM and all other bands because of the layered musical talents of the band and the lyrics that stood far and above any single resonant meaning, and allowed all listeners to interpret their own life stories within the words.

Music is a viable platform for political standings, speaches, agreements and disagreements. But, more than anything, music is meant moreover to be an escapist entertainment - a tentpole by which you could lean the issues (good and bad) of your life upon and feel an escapist charm by which your emotions can vent. If those venting emotions seem to be political, then so be it. To say that an artist has an obligation, a duty, or even a responsibility to take a stand and voice their own opinion may distance their escapist tendencies from many listeners, and deny what is truly good about music that is not 'always' politically charged and one-sided: a sense of entertainment that transcends all eras. RATM was moreover a political band; Soundgarden was not. With Audioslave, you get the musical, entertaining talents of both bands, but get music that is both great and meaningful. You also get "Wide Awake," which could be a song leaning toward liberal tendencies, but the song states what was obviously wrong with the Hurricane Katrina incident, which nobody, Republican or Democrat, could ever deny.

Keep up the great songwriting, boys. "Revelations" is your best album yet, both lyrically and musically. I can't wait to see you in concert once again. The Long Beach Arena concert in California in November, 2005 was hands-down the best concert I've ever attended. Well done.