Eerbetoon aan Chris Cornell van Grammal

Nog altijd is het heengaan van Chris Cornell een gat dat niet gedicht is, een wonde waarvan de genezing slechts heel langzaam vordert en waarschijnlijk voor altijd een litteken zal achterlaten. Op de verjaardag van Chris Cornell hebben de Finse bands Sammal en The Grammars de handen in elkaar geslagen en drie legendarische nummers online geplaatst als een bescheiden hommage en een oprecht gebaar van dankbaarheid aan dit icoon uit Seattle.
Hunger Strike van Temple Of The Dog mag gezien worden als een mijlpaal in het grungegenre.

Daarnaast spelen ze het Soundgardennummer Fell In Black Days

en Seasons van Chris Cornell solo

Comments from the bands:
We were around 15 when we got involved with the local band scene and started making our own music more than two decades ago. We all came from various musical backgrounds. Mainly it was the mid 90´s overwhelming grunge attack that brought us together musically and spiritually. It didn’t matter that we were located at a small countryside village of Sakyla or at a major city of Turku in Finland.
We dropped our guitar tunings and raised some serious teenage angst by rehearsing messed up versions of tunes by Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots and Pearl Jam. Yes, never Soungarden. Well, maybe we did jam the intros of ‘Outshined’ or ‘Fell On Black Days’ but then Chris Cornell’s vocal parts started and none of us could reach the power, spirit and the high notes like he did! Even back then Chris Cornell and Soundgarden were something that we understood to be way beyond average capabilities on every level of musicianship. They were the mythical ones!
The ‘Temple Of The Dog’ album which Chris Cornell wrote as a tribute to his deceased best friend, Mother Love Bone front man Andrew Wood, made a huge impact on us. Nearly 30 years after its release it leaves us speechless. Each time we listen to it we are awed at the thought that Cornell and the rest of the band were so very young yet still capable of creating such a timeless and soulful masterpiece. Even though our favorite era of Cornell’s career was the late 80’s and the 90’s our appreciation towards him as a high class musician and an artist has never faded from our view throughout the years. All about the music and no bullshit!
The Grammal Tribute Project started the day after Chris Cornell’s death as a result of small talk between our bands. The reasons why Finnish singing progressive rock band, Sammal, and long running classic rock band, The Grammers, jointly wanted to honor the Seattle-Icon brings us back to the beginning of the 2000´s. Without the sound of Seattle music scene and Cornell, Sammal and The Grammers would not know each other. Jura and Janu had a grunge influenced band, Resident 43, back in 2000. The Grammers also had strong grunge influences emerging in their musical output. We became friends in those years in the Turku music scene after several joint gigs and performances.
On May 18 this year Facebook feeds flooded with sad news of Chris Cornell´s tragic death. Comradery, respect and sorrow were first things that came to mind. Hannu from The Grammers saw Juras Facebook status updates about Cornell and instantly experienced a need to suggest a collective tribute project between our two bands to honor Chris Cornell´s legacy. Everything was arranged quickly. Both bands chose one song to do their own cover performance on. In addition to that bands decided to do a joint cover on Temple Of The Dog´s classic ‘Hunger Strike’ which also was an ideal opportunity for the bands’ singers to perform the duet. Quickly arranged one day studio sessions were accented with the warm mood of friendship and joyfulness that we also tried to capture on videos to be used in YouTube releases.
Today July 20, 2017 would have been Chris Cornell´s 53rd birthday. Let this be an honored birthday gift to the other side. HBD and Say Hello 2 Heaven, Chris.
Sincerely Yours, Grammal
The Grammers and Sammal are both working on new albums. Sammal will soon release their first live recording Live At Roadburn and their third full studio album will hit the stores in 2018. The Grammers seventh album, still untitled, will be released October 29, 2017.
The Grammal EP will be released in physical form as a charity project. Our goal is to collect funds for mental health organizations whose work focuses on young people, as soon as we have all the permissions applied.