Others are starting to pick up on it:

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbe … mID=100835

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/i … ck-band-2/

I couldn't disagree more.   Cornell is a great vocalist, but Rage is truly a unique musical entity, with far more staying power and impact that Audioslave managed to leave behind.

In the back of the magazine, towards the end of the reviews section, is the "Downloads" page, where every month, any form of downloadable music is reviewed.  Not only are the "Must Have" downlaod(s) of the month the Chinese Democracy links, but - even better - they are reviewed by David Fricke:

"Three big, dark, snarling new songs from the longest-awaited album ever."

"'Chinese Democracy is nearly here - based on these nine tracks, reportedly in final mastered form - and its deeply weird, in epic-reach and fuck-your-expectation ways that make me want to hear the whole thing pronto, in something better than this pinched-digital fidelity.  Of the new songs, "Rhiad and the Bedouins" is the closest to the snarling-guitar rumpus of Appetite for Destruction.  "If the World" and a third, untitled number are - like the previously leaked "There Was a Time" - midtempo, big production orgies, the former with a dusky Seventies-R&B flair, the latter cresting in an hammering chorus with singer Axl Rose at the peak of his shriek.  The effect is bleak and brawling, like Elton John's Madman Across the Water reset in a ravaged hard-rock Hollywood."    - David Fricke

I totally agree.  *The* movie of the summer for me.