After a pre-summer breakdown, the Machine is again operating at full steam.
Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk are back in a Los Angeles studio with former Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell working on material for an upcoming album, a spokesperson at Epic Records said.
The group, which originally called itself Civilian, is now considering using the moniker Audioslave, but there is still no title or release date for the upcoming album. However, a Web site has been launched by Sony at www.audioslavemusic.com, which features fuzzy photos of the members and a sign-up form for the band newsletter.
Cornell and Rage were scheduled to play the main stage at this year’s Ozzfest, but canceled in March when Cornell dropped out of the project after the group recorded an album’s worth of material. For a while, the band appeared to have broken up, but still planned to release the songs it had already recorded.
In May, 13 Civilian songs that exhibit the depth and primal ferocity of the band were leaked online (see “Rage/Cornell-Credited Tracks Get Leaked Online”). But the Epic spokesperson said the material the band is currently working on is dramatically different than the leaked songs, which were rough demos never intended for release. After the Cornell and Rage album is released, the band will likely tour.