"You know that feeling you get when somebody embarrasses themselves so badly YOU feel uncomfortable? Heard Chris Cornell's record? Jesus."
Trent Reznor's tweet on the evening of March 11, 2009 was as savage as it was unexpected. Scream, the third solo album released by Cornell, Soundgarden's former frontman, had been in stores for exactly one day when Nine Inch Nails' mastermind offered his scathing critique. As retweets spread Reznor's opinion on the collection, made in collaboration with hip hop producer Timbaland, across the internet, there must surely have been some heads in hands in the marketing and promotion departments of Suretone Records, the recently launched label founded by former Geffen/Interscope CEO Jordan Schur. And this wasn't even the worst review that Scream would receive.
NME called Scream "depressingly castrated". Blender called it "nearly awful". PopMatters suggested that the album exhibited "absolutely no artistic aspirations beyond chart-topping success".
"Sometimes it's good bizarre," acknowledged music industry bible Billboard. "Other times it's bad bizarre."
