CHRIS CORNELL Is 'Concentrating 100%' On Next SOUNDGARDEN Album

SOUNDGARDEN frontman Chris Cornell has confirmed that the band hopes to record the follow-up to 2012's comeback album, "King Animal", early in 2017 with the goal of releasing the disc later in the year.

During a December 5 appearance on "Whiplash", the KLOS radio show hosted by Full Metal Jackie, Cornell was asked if there are any plans for the band to tour and release new music anytime soon. He responded (hear audio below): "Well, it'll be in 2017 — both those things, hopefully, will happen — barring any, sort of, unforeseen thing, which I don't… I don't see any reason why those two things won't happen. The next thing that I am committing myself to concentrating on a hundred percent is the next SOUNDGARDEN album."

SOUNDGARDEN guitarist Kim Thayil told The Pulse Of Radio that the band has come up with a lot of material but still wants more. "We've gotten together at least three times for these weeklong sessions of songwriting and jamming and rehearsing, so we've probably got a good dozen or so songs that are sort of demoed," he said. "And once we get maybe another eight or nine songs and we have a good body of work there, we'll start kind of going through it to see what we really enjoy playing. Then we'll get into the studio to make that record. We hope to do that sometime soon in 2017."

Work on a new record started in 2015, but SOUNDGARDEN took breaks while Cornell toured his "Higher Truth" solo effort and drummer Matt Cameron hit the road with PEARL JAM.

SOUNDGARDEN reunited in 2010 after a 13-year layoff, touring and then eventually writing new material that became the basis for "King Animal", its first new studio album in 16 years.

Meanwhile, released last month was a deluxe 25th anniversary edition of SOUNDGARDEN's third studio album, 1991's "Badmotorfinger". Thayil told The Pulse Of Radio that working on the reissue has given him a newfound appreciation for the LP. "This is a loaded album," he said. "Everything here is great. Almost everything on the album, we continue to play live because it's fun to play and they're audience favorites. So it was always perhaps my third or fourth favorite SOUNDGARDEN album, but right now it's occupied a space at the top, you know, followed by perhaps 'Superunknown'."

The limited-edition seven-disc Super Deluxe edition consists of four CDs, two DVDs, and one Blu-ray audio disc, featuring 79 previously unreleased tracks, videos and mixes. Among those are 15 previously unreleased studio outtakes and "Live At The Paramount", SOUNDGARDEN's first-ever complete concert album recorded at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle on March 6,1992.

Released on October 8, 1991, "Badmotorfinger" spawned three singles, "Jesus Christ Pose", "Outshined" and "Rusty Cage", and became SOUNDGARDEN's first million-selling LP.