MUSIC: GARDEN OF DELIGHT

Soundgarden breaks from the grunge mold Chris Cornell, Soundgarden lead singer, used to have hair that was very long and went all over the place. Now his hair is cropped short and razor sharp. The same analogy can be drawn to Soundgarden's music. At one time, it had a very explosive metal edge, with Cornell screaming at a pitch so extraordinarily high that no other male on earth could dare approach it. However, on Soundgarden's new album Superunknown, Chris is doing more singing than screeching and the music has become much more controlled, more focused. The band could be talking about itself on the title track, with the lyrics "Get yourself contained/ Get yourself control." This is not to say that Soundgarden has turned wimpy by any means. Ben Shepherd's heavy bass is still prominent on this album. It provides the backbone of every song, along with Kim Thayil's swirling guitars, and Matt Cameron's booming drums. Check out the raw power of "Fourth of July" or "Like Suicide" if you need more convincing. On Superunknown, Soundgarden is doing things it has never done before. The band is breaking out of the heavy metal mold it has always been cast in. It is experimenting, expanding into different areas and citing various influences. More often than not, the result is successful. The sheer emotion of this album can knock you into next week, but when Soundgarden deals with dark topics like death, despair and alienation it does not sound trivial. The reason for this is Cornell, who wrote virtually all songs on the album and speaks with intelligence and a bit of irony on each of these tracks. "Mailman" is a song about a guy who feels so alone that he is ready to do anything to get noticed: "For all your kisses turned to spit in my face/ For all that reminds me which is in my place / For all of the times when you made me disappear/ This time I'm sure that you will know I'm here." Then there is the outstanding "Limo Wreck" with the line: "Under the shelf, the shelf of the sky/ Two eyes, two suns, two heavenly blinds/ Swallowing rivers, belongs to the sea/ When the whole thing washes away don't come running to me" There is no doubt about it; Chris Cornell is the Shakespeare of grunge rock. The musical range Soundgarden displays on Superunknown is simply amazing. There is the energetic "The Day I Tried to Live" whose message is anything but joyful. Then there's "Black Hole Sun" which sounds like a tortured and twisted Beatles song. "Head Down," written by Shepherd, is a mellow, trippy tune full of enormous despair. "Spoonman" is an upbeat tune on which the band collaborates with a spoon clattering phenom named Artis. "My Wave" is a surfer song, but Soundgarden does not pretend that it is the cheery Beach Boys. Cornell repeats the chorus over and over again: "Keep it off my wave." In some rare instances Soundgarden misses on this album. "Kickstand" is Kim Thayil's attempt at song-writing. It is a boring rah-rah biker dude piece that seems like it was put on Superunknown just to fill up space. Ditto for Shepherd's "Half" which has the bassist singing in a really irritating whine accompanied by Oriental sounding back-up music. Soundgarden is smart enough to allow Thayil to write and Shepherd to sing for only one song each. While Soundgarden has been around longer than any of its Seattle comrades (Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains) the band has yet to have a real mega-seller like Ten or Nevermind. Whether or not Superunknown will do it for Soundgarden is difficult to determine. But one thing can be said with certainty: this album is more diverse and more fascinating than anything those other bands have ever produced. Soundgarden may not be the most accessible band in the world but Superunknown proves that it refuses to be shackled by a particular categorization and that behind Cornell's genius this band can go very far.