Soundgarden lead singer Chris Cornell says the band’s first album in 16 years will stay true to the sound the band had crafted in the 13 years previous to ‘Down on the Upside.’ The untitled effort is expected to be available in 2012.

“It definitely isn’t retro, definitely isn’t nostalgic,” Cornell tells Revolver Magazine. “It sounds to me like — I don’t want to say the next logical step because I don’t think logic has anything to do with it — but it sounds like we’ve picked up where we left off really.”

Soundgarden broke up in 1997 but reunited last year for an arena tour which led to studio sessions. The interview with Revolver was focused on Cornell’s new live solo album ‘Songbook,’ which features the 47-year-old playing hits from his many bands on acoustic guitar. He shares that many of the group’s songs were written acoustically.

“Songs like ‘Blow Up the Outside World,’ ‘Fell on Black Days’ and ‘Black Hole Sun’ were written initially sitting down with an acoustic guitar,” he says. “And ‘Spoonman,’ the original demos were just acoustic guitars and pots and pans. And that’s often true with rock bands, certainly was with us. Everyone in in Soundgarden that has written songs, even really aggressive ones, they’ve often initially come up with ideas on acoustic guitar.”

Cornell has only heard the rough cuts of each of the songs, but says the album is very eclectic and “very Soundgarden.” “That’s very evident and it feels very forward to me.”

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