Temple Of The Dog was a collaboration between members of Soundgarden (Cornell & Cameron) and Mother Love Bone (Gossard & Ament), initiated as a tribute to Mother Love Bone's vocalist Andrew Wood who died of a heroin overdose in March, 1990 — two weeks before the release of MLB's debut album, Apple.
The group's one and only album also featured the first recorded appearance of Eddie Vedder, who contributes backing vocals on several tracks. Vedder had recently moved from San Diego to Seattle, and became friends with the band members during the recording of the record. Soon after the Temple Of The Dog sessions, Gossard, Ament, McCready and Vedder went on to form Pearl Jam.
Without pressure from a record label, the collaboration resulted in a beautiful album. The recording sessions took place from November 1990 to December 1990 at London Bridge Studios in Seattle, Washington. The album was recorded in only 15 days and the group worked with producer Rick Parashar. Two songs on the album, "Reach Down" and "Say Hello 2 Heaven" were written in response to Wood's death, while other songs on the album were written by Cornell on tour prior to Wood's death or re-worked from existing material from demos written by Gossard and Ament.
"Nearly every founding member of Pearl Jam appears on Temple of the Dog (including the then-unknown Eddie Vedder), so perhaps it isn't surprising that the record sounds like a bridge between Mother Love Bone's theatrical '70s-rock updates and Pearl Jam's hard-rocking seriousness. The album's strength is its mournful, elegiac ballads, but thanks to the band's spontaneous creative energy and appropriately warm sound, it's permeated by a definite, life-affirming aura." — AllMusic. Rated 4.5/5 stars
