Formed in Seattle in 1990, Temple Of The Dog was the preeminent ’90s grunge super-group. Only releasing one album and playing a handful of shows, with 2016 marking the 25th anniversary of their self titled debut album, the band figured why not go back to the well and re-release it and actually go on tour?
Made up of Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell (who of course went on to form the definitive ’00s grunge/rock supergroup Audioslave with Rage Against The Machine minus Zach De La Rocha), and Pearl Jam‘s Jeff Ament (bass), Stone Gossard (guitar), Mike McCready (guitar) and Matt Cameron (drums), the band pretty much never did anything again after releasing the album in 1991, before briefly reunited for a show with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra last year.
Speaking about the band’s reasons for getting back together, Cornell explained that they “wanted to do the one thing we never got to do … play shows and see what it feels like to be the band that we walked away from 25 years ago.”
As for the album’s re-release, it will be available on four formats, including 4xCD super deluxe, 2xLP, 2xCD and 1xCD, and will be newly mixed by Brendan O’Brien. And for those of you eager to get your hands on the super deluxe edition, be ready for a tsunami of Temple Of The Dog material as it features 48 unreleased demos, live cuts, and mixes.
While no plans to make it to Australia have yet emerged, the band have announced a run of shows in the US throughout November, following on from the album’s re-release on Friday 30th September. Still, we can keep our fingers crossed.
In the meantime though, you can watch the music video for Hunger Strike here below and relive some of the glorious grungy ’90s all over again.
Watch: Temple Of The Dog – Hunger Strike