Temple Of The Dog

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
This 1991 Seattle supergroup brought together Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden with the surviving members of Mother Love Bone (Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard) and Eddie Vedder, later of Pearl Jam. The experiment worked. Cornell shines, seeming more comfortable here on this tribute to his former roommate and deceased MLB lead singer Andrew Wood than with his own band. "Hunger Strike" and "Say Hello 2 Heaven" combine glam and grunge better than anything in Love Bone's catalogue, while "Wooden Jesus" is less didactic than anything in Pearl Jam's oeuvre. Most of the songs may be about loss and addiction but this is compelling music for dark days. --Charles R. Cross

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Customer reviews

review by: mitchgibbo date: 2008-07-23 rating:
Definitive Grunge
Before Pearl Jam and Soundgarden exploded on to the world stage in the early 90's came this well crafted and moving tribute to Mother Love Bone front-man Andrew Wood.
Born out of ideas from Chris Cornell (Wood's room-mate) and Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard (ex-Mother Love Bone), this is an exercise in how to pay hommage to one of your friends.
At times dark and moody, the album is never anything less than reverential toward the memory of Wood but with sincere and poignant pose and grace.
It can be mellow, it can be balls to the wall rock n roll, but with songs as good as "Say Hello to Heaven", "Pushing Forward Back" and the bon-fide grunge classic "Hunger Strike", it doesn't really matter. The music wraps around you, cossets you and takes you away to a different place.
You will recognise many of the feelings that this album will arouse in you, and you will ally yourself with the feeling of loss and the emptiness left when a friend is taken.
This is an album that taps into what makes us all human...friendship, love and pain.
For anyone who has even the slightest liking for the "Seattle Sound" of the early 90's, this is a must-have album....worth it just for the vocal pairing of Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell on the mighty "Hunger Strike"...just a great, great album.

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review by: date: 2008-02-06 rating:
A final nail in the coffin. Bang it in.
I can't come down too hard on this one because I'm afraid I'm not passionate about this kind of music anymore. As the years have passed, and as I've moved on to other types of music and other bands it's become rather too easy to appear smug and pompous in my opinions of the music known as grunge, the music that frankly coloured most of my tastes from age 15-20, but that now seems self-indulgent and humourless.

I had wanted the Temple of the Dog album for many years, but I didn't get it until recently. Once a girl in a club told me she was going to bring a tape of if in, and leave it behind the bar - all I had to do was go back and ask for it. I never did. I didn't believe she'd actually leave it there. Maybe it's still there now. Maybe if I had gone and collected it, I would have gotten some enjoyment out of this album.

Well, I haven't. I might have once. I used to be a massive Pearl Jam fan, but I don't really listen to them anymore. I was never a massive Soundgarden fan, though Superunknown, I feel, is one of the grunge albums that still holds up today. And this record sounds exactly how I expected. The songs, mostly written by Chris Cornell, are slow and grinding. Soundgarden's trademark unusual time signatures are intact, and handled ably by Matt Cameron on drums. The record was produced by Rick Parashar (and Temple of the Dog), and as a result the production sounds like Pearl Jam's Ten. Mike McCready provides his usual lead playing.

There are a few things that I don't like about the album. The guitars sound like they were plugged into FX units, and thence directly into the recording console, so to me it sounds like some dynamic richness has been lost. Cornell's vocal is a little over the top at times, and wouldn't sound out of place at an American Idol audition, and while the band plays competently and the subject matter and intentions are worthy, I'm afraid these songs fail to connect with me on an emotional level, and worse, fail to illicit the excitement that a great album should. I've read a few testaments to the excellence of the solo at the end of "Reach Down", but to my ears this solo is average at best. It just makes me wonder what made them think it was a good idea to let McCready solo for so long. He can only do one solo anyway - Alive, State of Love and Trust... - they're the same!

Ultimately it may be me that's missed out here. Perhaps I should have heard it around 12 years ago. There's little from the "grunge" genre that I consider to be quality these days, despite some excellent records being recorded in the early 90s, and this for me may just be the final nail in that genre's coffin.

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review by: date: 2007-12-02 rating:
An absolute pearl (jam)
We know everyone involved in the making of this album is an outstanding musician but it doesn't always follow that collective tallent will come up with the goods, however 'Temple Of The Dog' is a very special piece of work. It deserves a place at the top table of rock classics. For those of you, like me, who are long in the tooth and have been listening to music of a similar calibre for the last 36 years please try this. Your mission isn't complete until you do. You'll love it, cherish it and adore it until you croak. I think I can best describe 'Temple Of The Dog' as a hybrid of Audioslave and Free both at their very best. Hard rock with a drizzle of the blues. In my dreams this is Free's final album. The original line up continued making music throught the 70's and 80's and in 1991 they bowed out with this. In dream world you can re write rock music history. In the real world this didn't happen but we did get the album. The world continues to provide us with musicians as good as any who have gone before, we just have to hope that fate brings them together and they can keep producing musical gems like this.

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review by: ...the Fast Ones Always Ride For Free... date: 2007-08-06 rating:
The Temple of the Dogs!!
After I little browsing I thought I'd look up an album of mine here on Amazon as I'm sure many of you all do.... Well I was a little shocked to see a lot of reviews under 5 stars in fact a little nothing I was Horrified...someone here felt as though they needed some dance music after a track on this.... quite tragic really.... so I'll add mine.
Ok... first up "Say Hello 2 Heaven" written for and about the late Andrew Wood from Mother love Bone. The song displays and provides insight into the friendship and respect the members here had for Andrew... a true tribute indeed.
Second is the epic grunge dripping mouth-watering "Reach Down" again directly about our late friend and displays the full range of talent that the members here possess. The long guitar solo here is magnificent and leaves you wanting to pick up the instrument yourself (I did) we have Mike McCready to thank for it... an interesting fact about that Is during the recording McCready's headphones fell off early in the solo section and rather than stop and replace-start again he carried on and played it deaf effectively without the backing track... Genius!! How many artists today would do that?....
Third up is "Hunger Strike" you hear alot about this track... Vedder this and Cornell that I don't enter into it... it's a classic and one of the best on the record...simple... all the other crap is unimportant and frankly unnecessary!
Fourth is "Pushin Forward Back" and the first to feature written contrabutions from anybody other than Cornell, yes this includes Hunger Strike, and is a great display from all members once again with Cornell on top form as he is for each and every effort on the album. Lyrically different from the previous songs as the album progresses but the underlining theme of loss and anger stay put on this track.
Fifth is "Call Me a Dog" a real change from the previous four and provides a slower, more lyrically and vocally driven record which lets us see the diversity of the artists here... I have always wondered how related if at all this is to Wood.
Sixth up is the amazing "Times of Trouble" maybe my favourite on the record, co written by Gossard and the opening and continuous riff tell us this as it's dripping with the Gossard talent evident from his previous efforts with Green River and Mother Love Bone then later with Pearl Jam and Brad. Lyrically superb also from Cornell clearly dealing with his issues involving drugs and death.
Seventh in and we hit "Wooden Jesus" another personnal fav of mine but it wasn't really at first it really grew after awhile, it begins quite calmly with Cornell chanting along nicely and builds to spine tingle, nerve jangle, neck hair standing affair as Cornell picks it up to an powerful anger driven howl that strikes nerves for me now even after so many listens.
Eighth song is "Your Saviour" and is for me the epic of the record. Musically brilliant, Lyrically powerful... more reflections on life and death from Cornell, you can imagine Cornell writting this thinking about the loss of his friend. The end section is for me the single best section on an incredible album leaves your soul haunted on it's completion, I'm still unsure as to what Cornell is pleading at the end... very spirital for me.
Ninth and penultimate track is "Four Walled World" as hard as it is to follow up Your Saviour this track manages it with ease, the second longest of the record brings together the band again to produce a kind of howling notion about the troubles and strifes in their respentive lives, another truly great soul-searching masterpiece of musical craftsmanship.
Tenth and final effort is the fitting "All Night Thing" ends are an amazing thing on an album because it's the last thing you hear obviouly and if it's poor can give you a false view, but that ain't gonna happen here. The album ends differently from the previous nine efforts but end it does... Cause It's an All Night Thing...

Music is an amazing thing, as Andrew Wood said It's the only international language, variety is what makes music what it is and every human being has a totally different, or in some cases just a slightly different, taste to someone else.

The important this for me here is I really love this work, and If Andrew Wood was alive to hear it I'd hope he'd love it as much as I do cause it was for him, and I really hate bad comments about what is for me a work of art... even though everybody has their and is intitled to their opinion...

....Anyway... that was what I thought...


review by: date: 2007-06-21 rating:
ESSENTIAL
ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL LISTENING FOR ANY SELF-RESPECTING GRUNGE ENTHUSIAST AND FOR ANY CHRIS CORNELL FANS. BREATH-TAKING VOCALS AND HARD-HITTING LYRICS WITH HAUNTING AND MOVING MUSICAL ARRANGEMENTS.

"SAY HELLO 2 HEAVEN" IS HAUNTINGLY BRILLIANT, AN IMPRESSIVE OPENER WITH A LOT OF PASSION AND FEELING (MOTHER LOVE BONE FRONTMAN ANDY WOOD - FOR WHOM THE BAND WAS A TRIBUTE TO - AND CHRIS CORNELL WERE CLOSE FRIENDS, SO THERE'S A LOT OF PASSION IN THE SONGS CHRIS WROTE FOR HIM), LEAVING YOU WITH GOOSEBUMPS

"REACH DOWN" IS PARTICULARLY GLOOMY, GRUNGE FANS WILL BE LICKING THEIR LIPS AS THEY LISTEN TO THE NEVER-ENDING GUITAR SOLOS BACKED UP WITH TRADEMARK BASS AND DRUMMING THAT SHOWS YOU JUST HOW SKILFUL GRUNGE MUSICIANS WERE DESPITE CONSTANT CRITICISM AT THE TIME

"HUNGER STRIKE", SOFT AND RADIO-FRIENDLY BUT STILL JUST AS MOVING, WITH AMAZING VOCALS FROM CHRIS CORNELL AND A SKILFUL TURN FROM EDDIE VEDDER ON GUEST-LEAD VOCALS, GIVING CORNELL A RUN FOR HIS MONEY, YOU WILL BE SINGING THIS FOR HOURS AFTER THE ALBUM HAS ENDED

"PUSHIN' FORWARD BACK", "YOUR SAVIOUR" AND "FOUR WALLED WORLD" ARE GOOD SONGS THAT WILL HAVE ANY SOUNDGARDEN AND PEARL JAM FANS ROCKING

"CALL ME A DOG" IS ANOTHER FINE EXAMPLE OF CHRIS CORNELL'S BEAUTIFUL VOICE AND TOUCHING VOCALS, LEAVES YOU FEELING COLD

"TIMES OF TROUBLE" (HARDCORE PEARL JAM FANS WILL RECOGNISE THE RIFF USED IN THE SONG "FOOTSTEPS" WHICH CAN BE FOUND ON THE "LOST DOGS" RARITIES COMPILATION) HAS MORE SOARING VOCALS AND BLEAK LYRICS THAT HIT YOU SO HARD YOUR HEAD FEELS LIGHT

MY PERSONAL FAVOURITE ON THE ALBUM "ALL NIGHT THING" WHICH REALLY IS CORNELL'S SONG; DEFINITELY WOULD NEVER SOUND RIGHT ON A PEARL JAM ALBUM, WOULDN'T GO WITH SOUNDGARDEN'S MATERIAL AND WOULD BE TOO SOFT FOR AUDIOSLAVE, THIS IS ONE OF HIS FINEST HOURS; HEARTBREAKING WORDS AND VOCALS THAT TAKE YOU TO ANOTHER PLACE

ESSENTIAL AND EXTRAORDINARY. BUY IMMEDIATELY.

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