Grammy Nominated Quartet Audioslave Enter Billboard Top 200 At No 2

NEW YORK (By Lisa Markowitz/ Epic Records) - Fueled by smash hit single "Original Fire," new AUDIOSLAVE album REVELATIONS has rocketed onto Billboard's Top 200 at 2, with sales of more than 141,000 units. The blockbuster debut marks the second straight big bow for the Grammy-nominated quartet (vocalist Chris Cornell, guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk), following 2005's Out of Exile, which entered the chart at No. 1.

"Audioslave are a Led Zeppelin for our times," wrote Blender in a 3 1/2 star write-up. Giant gave the record 4 stars and called it "one of the most formidable rock albums this year." Entertainment Weekly praised Morello for "returning to the guitar-as-turntable style he patented with Rage [Against the Machine]" and Rolling Stone praised "Original Fire" as "three and a half minutes of high expectations fulfilled: a fierce, greasy parade march with Cornell singing in a near-rap cadence, like a Seventies rock god fronting a power-trio P Funk."

"Revelations," the groove-laden title track, which appears as a marquee cut on the mega-popular video game, EA Madden NFL 2007, will be the second single off the album and hitting airwaves later this month.

Audioslave recorded REVELATIONS at Henson Studios in Los Angeles with acclaimed producer Brendan O'Brien. O'Brien, whose myriad credits include Pearl Jam and Bruce Spingsteen, mixed Audioslave's Out of Exile record and the Live in Cuba CD and DVD. His history with the band goes back even farther, as he produced Rage Against The Machine albums Evil Empire (1996), The Battle of Los Angeles (1999) and Renegades (2000) and mixed Soundgarden's Superunknown (1994).