Soundgarden
Soundgarden's new single "Live to Rise," as featured in this year's highly anticipated movie, "Marvel's The Avengers," premiered on Friday, May 04. "Live to Rise," written for and appearing in the film is the first single from the Marvel Music/Hollywood Records release "Avengers Assemble." REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

Soundgarden's new single Live to Rise, as featured in this year's highly anticipated movie, Marvel's The Avengers, premiered on Friday, May 04.

Live to Rise, written for and appearing in the film is the first single from the Marvel Music/Hollywood Records release Avengers Assemble.

The cinematic video, which features a live performance from the Seattle rock group, was directed by Robert Hales.

Hales, a well-respected name among video directors in the music industry, has worked with the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Janet Jackson, Kings of Leon, Justin Timberlake and many more.

In the first week of the songs debut, Soundgarden's Live to Rise was the number one most added song on Alternative and Active Rock U.S. radio and is currently number three at Mainstream Rock, number four at Active Rock and number 13 at Alternative (Modern Rock).

Offered as a free download on iTunes for one week, the Live to Rise track exceeded 350,000 downloads, according to Yahoo News.

Soundgarden, headed up by lead singer Chris Cornell, was one of the seminal bands in the creation of grunge, a style of alternative rock that developed in Seattle in the early 90s.

Soundgarden achieved its biggest success with the 1994 album Superunknown, which debuted at number one on the Billboard charts and yielded the Grammy Award-winning singles Black Hole Sun and Spoonman.

In 1997, Soundgarden broke up due to internal strife over its creative direction. After several years working on projects and other bands, the band reunited in 2010 and is currently working on a new album, which is slated for release in the spring of 2012.

The Live to Rise single and Avengers Assemble album are available on iTunes.

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston, with Stellan Skarsgard and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and directed by Joss Whedon, Marvel's The Avengers is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series The Avengers, first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since.

Marvel's The Avengers, in theaters nationwide on May 4, 2012, features iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow.

The premise of the movie surrounds an unexpected enemy that emerges and threatens global safety and security, while Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster.