On May 18, 2017 the music world lost one of the most influential artists of the last 25 years. Chris Cornell passed away due to suicide on May 18, 2017 at the age of 53. Cornell was the frontman for three different groups in his career, including Soundgarden, Audioslave, and Temple of the Dog. His band Soundgarden won the the  1994 MTV award for best rock music video for his song, “Black Hole Sun.” Rumors have been circulating about new Cornell album for months after his death in 2017, but now it has finally been confirmed that we will be getting some new music.

Alternative Nation (www.alternativenation.net)  announced that there will be new Cornell music to be released in a box set. Alternative Nation released the statement about the new music and Loudwire confirmed the alleged tracklisting, which consists of music from Soundgarden, Audioslave, Temple of the Dog, and also some unreleased solo work that Cornell had done. The featured track that fans of Chris Cornell are just dying to hear is the previously unreleased song, “When Bad Does Good”. The album will open with some live performances from the Paramount in Seattle, Washington, where Chris grew up and it is also the place where his music career as a musician started. There will be a total of 11 unreleased songs, including some covers. One of these covers will be a cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2U”. Some other live performances on this album will be of Cornell’s hits like “Black Hole Sun” performed by Soundgarden and “Like a Stone” performed by Audioslave. The entire box set will consist of 64 total songs across what is believed to be three separate CD’s.

As stated previously, Cornell passed away due to suicide by hanging on May 18, 2017, in his hotel room after a concert in Detroit, Michigan. 2017 was a tough year in the rock and heavy metal world as many beloved stars were lost. Such stars were Malcolm Young of AC/DC, Tom Petty, and one of the founding fathers of rock n roll Chuck Berry. But one death that seemed to have struck people the most was the loss of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington. Chester’s electrifying voice inspired hope in a time of darkness for millions of people across the world. Bennington also committed suicide by hanging himself on July 20,2017, which would have been Chris Cornell’s 53rd birthday. Chester was great friends with Cornell, and decided to perform their song “One More Light” in honor of Cornell. “One More Light” is a song about losing someone and the album was released one day before Cornell’s passing. Linkin Park opened with this song on their “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” concert. Bennington couldn’t even finish the last few lyrics of the song because he choked up in emotion towards the end. No fans ever saw these two deaths coming nevermind within months of each other. At Cornell’s funeral, Bennington performed “Hallelujah”.

These two deaths bring up the important issue of mental health. People may criticize people like Bennington and Cornell were “cowards” for committing suicide. They were extremely rich, had big houses, wives, kids, and successful bands, including Bennington, who was apart of Dead by Sunrise and was a member of Stone Temple Pilots from 2013 to 2015. Yet people still ask “With all of these great things in their lives, why do they take their own life?” It is still unknown why they killed themselves. No fans ever saw these two deaths coming never mind within months of each other. One interview that stands out about these issues is one that Alternative Nation did with Shawn “Clown” Crahan of the heavy metal band Slipknot. He said that “My friends are dying, and I can’t take that anymore”. He also stated that death in general is a hard topic for him, after losing his mother and one of his best friends and fellow band mate Paul Gray. Crahan said “Personally I just want to say that I’m so saddened by the pain, the loneliness and the isolation. I’m not sure what happened, I’m not in people’s minds, but it’s a frightening thought to know that someone has something else on their mind that you don’t know”. All people in the rock community have done performances in honor of the two including Corey Taylor, Mike Shinoda, Mark Hoppus, Daron Malakian, and many others. The losses of Cornell and Bennington were both shocking and unexpected, and with their death anniversaries having recently passed millions of fans came together to honor their lives. Bennington and Cornell left a mark on the world like no other artists have and they are both still dearly missed to this day.