They don’t have a release date, a title, or even a record company waiting to get it onto the shelves, but Soundgarden is in the studio working on its first new album in 15 years – and during a pair of recent interviews, frontman Chris Cornell and guitarist Kim Thayil hinted at what fans can expect to hear.

“We’re kind of doing it in stages,” says Thayil, adding, “We have about 14 songs in various stages of completion. Previously, we’d just block out a bunch of time and go and track everything at once, but we can’t really do that right now.”

He went on to discuss the sound of the new material, saying, “The vibe of the songs is definitely very heavy. We’ve always tried to explore how to make this really heavy, aggressive music without sounding like a bunch of knuckle-dragging meatheads. I think these songs are kind of exploring that idea. Ways of emoting aggression and anger and hostility in ways that feel new.”

Meanwhile, in a video interview with The Pulse of Radio, Cornell prepared for Soundgarden’s upcoming summer tour by reflecting on the band’s legacy, saying, “We were never an easy band to mimic. There’s a lot of bands influenced by us, but I don’t think you could sit down and point to three or four bands over the history of the last 20 years that really just tried to cop what we did and then came out. ‘Cause it wasn’t possible.”

Soundgarden hits the road on July 2 in Toronto, and their tour will take them down the East Coast and through the Midwest later in the month before wrapping up in Washington on July 30.

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