VARIOUS ARTISTS (TRIBUTE ALBUMS) — Superunknown (Redux) (review)

VARIOUS ARTISTS (TRIBUTE ALBUMS) — Superunknown (Redux) album cover

Album · 2023 · Heavy Alternative Rock

3.5/5 · 2023-07-15
UMUR

"Superunknown (Redux)" is a various artists tribute album released through Magnetic Eye Records in July 2023. It´s a tribute to Soundgarden´s fourth full-length studio album "Superunknown" (March 1994, A&M Records) and it features all fifteen tracks from the original album covered by different artists. The tracklist order is the same as on the original album, but most of the artists manage to put their own spin on the songs, which makes "Superunknown (Redux)" an album worth your time. There´s nothing less interesting than listening to covers which are 100% true to the originals.

Ufomammut opens with a heavy and psychedelic stoner rock/metal cover of "Let Me Drown", and it´s such a cool and different interpretation of that track. High Priest´s cover of "My Wave" is great too and the dusty low-key recording of "Fell on Black Days" by Marissa Nadler is also a good quality cover. Unfortunately Somnuri falls into the catagory of artists who have created a cover of "Mailman" which is too close to the original. The same can be said about Valley of The Sun´s cover of "Superunknown". It´s competently performed and well produced, but it´s not particularly different from the original.

Next up is Frayle covering "Head Down", and that´s a great female led doom metal version of that track. It´s nicely dark, heavy, and creepy. To my ears it´s one of the highlights of the album and it´s a great example of a band making a cover their own. So how does Spotlights fare covering the most famous and iconic track from "Superunknown"? Well... "Black Hole Sun" is thankfully covered in a both respectful but also heavier and different version from the original. The cover is almost 7 minutes long, so Spotlights have also added some parts to the original track (basically just an outro guitar solo, but it´s still pretty great), which was only 5 minutes long.

"Spoonman" is covered by Horseburner and it´s different enough from the original to matter (it´s actually one of the better covers on the album). It´s harder edged and heavier and thankfully featuring a vocalist who doesn´t try to sound like Chris Cornell. I like the harmony guitar part around the 3 minutes mark and the blistering lead guitar work throughout the track. Oregon based doom/stoner rock/metal act Witch Mountain covers "Limo Wreck", and it´s another great female led cover track. Heavy, organic, and delivered with great vocal attitude by Kayla Dixon. It seems Soundgarden´s songs lend themselves well to female vocals. Beastwars covers "The Day I Tried To Live" and it´s one of the few covers on the album, which my ears don´t agree much with. The original version of "Kickstand" is a short, fast, and energetic rocker, but Jack Harlon and The Dead Crows have chosen to make the song much slower, more heavy, and four times as long. The heavy psychedelic cover version is quite different from the original, which is a plus in my book, but unfortunately it´s not a particularly great cover.

"Fresh Tendrils" is covered by The Age of Truth and it´s a decent if not great cover. "4th Of July" is one of the standout tracks on the original album, because of its heavy and bleak nature, so I was interested to hear what Marh Ursellis Steppendoom could do what it. As it turns out this cover is slightly less heavy (although definitely still pretty heavy), and a little more atmospheric and eerie sounding than the original. This cover has character and I respect Marh Ursellis Steppendoom´s decision to try and give the song a twist. "Half" was always one of the least remarkable tracks on "Superunknown", but Dozer at least try to make it more interesting and succeed in doing so. I´ll go as far as to say that this cover is almost more interesting than the original. Darkher closes the album with their cover of "Like Suicide", and it´s arguably one of the highlights of "Superunknown (Redux)". Again it´s a female led cover and it´s quite different from the original. It´s sombre, atmospheric, melancholic, and the instrumentation is different from the instrumentation on the original too.

So upon conclusion about half of the covers on the album are either great or even brilliant, and the other half are at least decent (some are even great but a bit too close in sound to the originals), so "Superunknown (Redux)" is overall a good quality release and it´s definitely worth a purchase for fans of Soundgarden. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.