Soundgarden

Twenty years ago, Cornell and his Soundgarden band-mates released their fourth album, Superunknown, just as grunge was reaching critical mass. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 310,000 copies in its opening week and reached high positions on charts worldwide. Now the band is celebrating the anniversary with a lavish deluxe reissue, which contains dozens of demos and B-sides to accompany hits like "Black Hole Sun," "Spoonman" and "Fell on Black Days," and a performance of the album in full in New York in advance of their tour with Nine Inch Nails this summer. This reissued collection will be released on June 2nd, complete with demos, rehearsal recordings and B-sides that lift the lid on the album's making. Soundgarden will play Barclaycard British Summer Time in London's Hyde Park on July 4th, alongside Black Sabbath, Wolfmother, Faith No More, Motörhead, Soulfly, Gallows and Rise To Remain.

Formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1984 by singer and rhythm guitarist Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto. Matt Cameron became the band's full-time drummer in 1986, while bassist Ben Shepherd became a permanent replacement for Yamamoto in 1990. In 1988, Soundgarden was the first grunge band to sign to a major label, A&M Records, though the band did not achieve commercial success until they popularized the genre in the early 1990s with Seattle contemporaries Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Alice in Chains. Soundgarden has sold more than 10.5 million records in the United States and an estimated 22.5 million worldwide.

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