10 Rock Singers Who Fronted Two Great Bands

When Soundgarden hit it big in the early 90s, they were pretty much lumped in with all the other Seattle "grunge" acts, even though they had more of a metal edge to them (Jesus Christ Pose in particular got plenty of airplay on metal shows). So it was easy to discount Chris Cornell as just another Alt. Rock singer with a gravelly voice putting an extra nail in the coffin of hair metal.

That said, Cornell was far more talented than he was given credit for early on. Soundgarden didn't get the same level of attention that Nirvana, Pearl Jam, or even Alice in Chains, but the band - up until a breakup/hiatus in the late 90s - was probably one of the more consistent Seattle acts.

During that hiatus period, Cornell would go on to serve as frontman for Audioslave, featuring the members of Rage Against the Machine. Call them Rage Against the Garden if you will, but across three albums, Audioslave actually proved to be a very solid act in their own right. Some of their best material could be found among the deeper cuts of Out of Exile and Revelations (their second and third albums), but it was that first disc that established the band and its super-group pedigree.

When you add in Cornell's work on the early 90s super-group effort Temple of the Dog, you quickly see just how good a frontman he really is - lightning rarely strikes twice, after all.