Everything We Know About Soundgarden’s FinalAlbum

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From the rumored tracklist to when it might finally drop — here’s the lowdown on Soundgarden’s long-awaited final album.

Photo: Henry Ruggeri

Talking about a new Soundgarden album in 2025 means talking about loss and memory, but also about what comes next. Seven years after Chris Cornell’s passing, the Seattle band is still alive in the hearts and minds of their fans — and now they’re facing the toughest chapter of their career: finishing and releasing the record they were working on between 2015 and 2017, right before everything came crashing down.

Kim Thayil put it straight: “We have to finish it.” That line says it all. This isn’t about digging up dusty tapes or unfinished scraps — it’s about closing a chapter that got cut off mid-sentence.

From King Animal to Now

Flash back to 2012. After sixteen years of radio silence, Soundgarden dropped King Animal. Fans were nervous — would they still sound like Soundgarden? The answer was loud and clear: hell yeah. The record felt like the natural follow-up to 1996’s Down on the Upside. Tracks like A Thousand Days Before, Blood on the Valley Floor, and Bones of Birds proved they hadn’t lost a step.

That’s why folks are expecting the same vibe from this new album. If King Animal closed the loop with their past, these final recordings might be the next step — rooted in their old fire, but made by a grown-up band that knows how to balance rage, darkness, and melody with real intent.

What We Know About the Songs

The rumored titles — Ahead of the Dog, At Ophians Door, Cancer, Merrmas, Orphans, Road Less Traveled, Stone Age Mind — hint at very different worlds. Some sound dark and apocalyptic, others more personal and reflective.

Matt Cameron says the material is a mix: “some heavy and dark, others more melodic and exploratory.” In other words, classic Soundgarden — a band that never stayed in one lane. Cameron’s especially proud of Road Less Traveled, a track he co-wrote with Cornell, one that meant a lot to Chris himself.

The best part? These aren’t rough demos. These are songs recorded with Cornell in the room, singing and leading. No AI tricks, no Frankenstein-style edits — just Chris, raw and real, like he always was.

So why the delay? Mostly legal drama. Years of back-and-forth over who controlled the masters slowed everything down. Thankfully, things cleared up a couple years ago, and that’s when Thayil, Cameron, and Ben Shepherd finally got back to work. “It’s emotionally heavy,” Cameron admitted. No kidding — imagine sitting there, hearing Chris’s voice in your headphones, trying to honor what he wanted without being able to ask him. Brutal.

Tentative Tracklist

Nothing official yet, but here’s what’s floating around — apparently all produced by Brendan O’Brien (yeah, the same guy who’s been behind Pearl Jam forever). According to Cameron, the album should have eight tracks total:

  • Ahead Of The Dog (Cornell/Thayil)
  • At Ophians Door (Cornell/Cameron)
  • Cancer (Cornell)
  • Merrmas (Cornell/Shepherd)
  • Orphans (Cornell/Cameron)
  • Road Less Traveled (Cornell/Cameron)
  • Stone Age Mind (Cornell)
What to Expect

If King Animal was the perfect follow-up to Down on the Upside, then this new final record will probably carry that same torch. Maybe not stylistically — we don’t know yet — but in spirit: a bridge between who Soundgarden were and who they could’ve become.

Expect it to be heavy, dark, sometimes jagged, but with moments of melody where Cornell’s voice just cuts through. Probably not an instant, catchy record — more layered, the kind of album you grow into after multiple spins. Which, honestly, is exactly what you’d want from Soundgarden.

More Than Music

This album isn’t just about songs. It’s a farewell letter, a love note to Chris, and to the fans who never walked away. Some will see it as an ending, others as a new beginning that can’t actually continue. Either way, everyone’s gonna feel the same punch to the gut: hearing Chris’s voice on new material, alive in the speakers.

If all goes as planned, and with the band already deep into production, we might see it drop sometime in 2026. When it does, it’s gonna feel like an unexpected gift — from Soundgarden to Chris, and from Chris to us.

A record that’s not just another chapter, but a reflection on what remains, how circles close, and how music, when it’s this real, outlives everything — even tragedy.