Members of Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Mastodon and more have formed a collective, King Ultramega, to pay tribute to the late Chris Cornell.
Chris Cornell helped found the grunge band Soundgarden back in 1984, and was the frontman up until his death by suicide on May 18, 2017. Now, eight years after Cornell’s tragic death, his former bandmates and other veteran rock musicians have formed the King Ultramega collective for charity.
King Ultramega serves as an ever-changing supergroup of sorts, and will record and release numerous Chris Cornell songs from across his legendary career, with proceeds going to the MusiCares organisation.
The first iteration of King Ultramega features Alice In Chains’ William DuVall on vocals, Mastodon’s Bill Kelliher on guitar, Anthrax and Pantera‘s Charlie Benante on drums and project organiser Mark Menghi of Metal Allegiance on bass. They’ve covered ‘Rusty Cage’ off Soundgarden’s 1991 album ‘Badmotorfinger’ – you can check it out below.
Future covers will include Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil, Arch Enemy‘s Alissa White-Gluz, renowned guitarist Joe Satriani and Kenny Aronoff and others, per Consequence. Details on other songs being covered have yet to be announced.
Metal Allegiance’s Mark Menghi, who put the collective together, said of the project: “There is not a singular moment in time that led to this project. It was a trail of events that led to the formation of King Ultramega and the evolving creation to pay tribute to the voice of a generation.”
Cornell’s former bandmate Thayil added: “I’m super honored to record alongside all the amazing musicians appearing on the King Ultramega project. I’m equally proud that it celebrates Soundgarden in this tribute to the songwriting of Chris. Ultra-admirably, everyone’s participation is supporting the work of the MusiCares Foundation.”
Soundgarden’s Ben Shepherd recently shared an update on the band’s final album with Chris Cornell, which they had been working on at the time of his death, suggesting that they’re finally back to working on songs from the unreleased project.
Soundgarden have also been announced as inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later this year. Following the announcement of their impending induction, Thayil shared an update on finding a vocalist to fill in for Chris Cornell at the ceremony in November.
Thayil said several names have come up for a potential replacement, but he’s keeping tight-lipped for now: “Some suggestions have come out; I’m not prepared to share that, but I’ll just say it’s a higher bar than the usual composite of guitarists and drummers or singers.”
Soundgarden have only performed three times since Chris Cornell’s death – once last December for a benefit event where they were fronted temporarily by Shaina Shepherd, once during a tribute show for the singer in 2019 and again in 2021 when they performed with Brandi Carlile.
