Audioslave - Out Of Exile [2LP]

Audioslave stopped sounding like a supergroup and started sounding like a band on Out Of Exile, their 2005 second album, now pressed as a 180-gram 2LP.

The debut had drawn endless comparisons to Rage Against the Machine with a new singer, but here Chris Cornell, Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk carved out an identity of their own. Rick Rubin produced alongside the band, Brendan O'Brien handled the mix, and the record debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the only Audioslave album to do so.

Cornell described these as his most personal songs, and his vocals sound clearer and more controlled than before. "Be Yourself" became the album's signature, a hopeful mid-tempo anthem, while "Doesn't Remind Me" finds unexpected comfort in life's simple distractions.

Morello's riffs still drive everything. "Your Time Has Come" opens with a thunderous charge, and the rhythm section of Commerford and Wilk keeps the grooves heavy and locked in. Shortly before the album's release, the band played a free concert in Havana to around 70,000 people, the first show in Cuba by an American rock group.

It all adds up to the sound of four musicians fully settled into something new, and arguably the high point of their run together.