Soundgarden was one of the bands that was supposed to make it out of the Seattle 90′s grunge scene but just came up short with a break up in 1997.  Pearl Jam was the only band of note that made it out of that era and picked up Matt Cameron after the breakup. The others haven’t been exactly sitting on the couch at home waiting for the phone to ring either. We all know Chris Cornell’s work with Audioslave as well as his solo work, Kim Thayil has collborated with Ascend, Jello Biafra and sunn O))) and Ben Shepard has worked with Josh Homme and Mark Lanegan of Queens of The Stone Age.

At the stroke of midnight on December 31st Cornell informed all his followers on Twitter that the band was getting back together and linked to a new webpage with the message “The 12 year break is over & school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again!”

So far details are scarce but there are rumors that they are accepting festival offers and could possibly play Coachella this year.

I wish that I could say the reunion comes as a complete surprise but the band has been making a few appearances together over the past year and have been dropping hints that something was on the way. In march Kim, Matt, and Ben rocked out with Tom Morello and Tad Doyle. Then the comment from Cornell in an interview with MusicRadar where he said “I’m never going to count anything out. I’ve always remained on great terms with everyone in the band. We’ve always been good friends. Seeing them reunite recently on YouTube? I thought that was terrific. It gave me a warm feeling. I wish I could have been there.” Refering to the show mentioned above. And finally when Cornell made a guest appearance in October with Pearl Jam in Los Angeles for a sort of Temple of The Dog reunion and sang “Hunger Strike”.

It will be interesting to see how everything plays out over the next year especially considering that Pearl Jam just released Backspacer and Cameron has tour dates with them all through the year and the fact that he recently told Grunge Report that “the last thing on my mind is getting a band back together”. Maybe that was a comment to lead us all off the trail. We’ll just have to wait and see at their first show who’s behind the kit.