"Been Away Too Long", the first official single from SOUNDGARDEN's new album, arrives on Thursday (September 27) at radio stations, iTunes and other digital retailers. According to The Pulse Of Radio, the song leaked briefly on Wednesday (September 26), with some stations and web sites streaming it until the band's label sent out cease-and-desist orders. But it got around enough to fire up fans on Twitter and message boards, with most proclaiming the hard-rocking track a return to form for Seattle's pioneering grunge act.

Banana1015.com called the track "a harder-hitting and true to form return of the most avant-garde group of the 1990s grunge scene," while Consequence Of Sound dubbed it "a fine modern rock track — that is, if you enjoy it coming at you 700 mph and from Mars."

Singer Chris Cornell told The Pulse Of Radio not long ago that SOUNDGARDEN's songwriting has always made the band unique. "It's made us a very eclectic band musically, and a band that's really hard to distill," he said. "We were never an easy band to mimic. There's a lot of bands influenced by us, but I don't think you could sit down and point to three or four bands over the history of the last 20 years that really just tried to cop what we did and then came out. 'Cause it wasn't possible."

The new SOUNDGARDEN album, "King Animal", comes out on November 13. It's the first all-new set of material from the reunited group since 1996's "Down On The Upside".

SOUNDGARDEN reunited in 2010 after a 13-year break, releasing a retrospective collection called "Telephantasm" and a concert album titled "Live On I-5".

"King Animal" track listing:

01. Been Away Too Long
02. Non-State Actor
03. By Crooked Steps
04. A Thousand Days Before
05. Blood On The Valley Floor
06. Bones of Birds
07. Taree
08. Attrition
09. Black Saturday
10. Halfway There
11. Worse Dreams
12. Eyelid's Mouth
13. Rowing

The band's first new song since regrouping, "Live To Rise", was a rock radio hit in June when it was issued as the lead single from the soundtrack of the movie "The Avengers".

SOUNDGARDEN has yet to announce tour plans in support of "King Animal".