BURBANK, Calif., April 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- "Live to Rise," Soundgarden's first all-new song in 15 years is available as a free download on iTunes today.  The promotion on iTunes kicks off with an exclusive clip, "The Face Off" from this year's highly anticipated movie, "Marvel's The Avengers."   

"Live to Rise," the original song written and recorded for and appearing in the film is the first single from the Marvel Music/Hollywood Records release Avengers Assemble. Soundgarden's "Live to Rise" was the #1 most added song in its first week at Alternative and Active Rock U.S. radio.  The single will be available as a free download for one week, April 17 through April 24. A pre-order for Avengers Assemble, the 13-track compilation of music from and inspired by the film, is also available on iTunes beginning April 17.

Marvel Studios presents "Marvel's The Avengers"—the Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, 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. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins.

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" is from Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures, produced by Kevin Feige and directed by Joss Whedon from a story by Zak Penn and Joss Whedon with screenplay by Joss Whedon. The film releases in theaters on May 4, 2012.

Avengers Assemble will be available on iTunes for pre-order exclusively at www.iTunes.com/Avengers on April 17, 2012 and on May 1, 2012 wherever music is sold.

About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of over 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy years.  Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing and publishing.  For more information visit www.marvel.com.

About Soundgarden
With over 21 million records sold worldwide, Soundgarden redefined rock music for a whole generation and had a revolutionary impact on the course of musical history. At the dawn of 2010, the band, Chris Cornell, Matt Cameron, Kim Thayil and Ben Shepherd, announced a new beginning. In the last two years since Soundgarden has reunited, they have headlined festivals, toured the world and released their first retrospective titled Telephantasm which included the previously unreleased song, "Black Rain" and their first live album, Live on I-5. The press has exalted their return to the stage and the music scene. Rolling Stone called their headline performance at Lollapalooza "an epic set...a blueprint of the Seattle sound," where the Chicago Tribune hailed them as "one of the last great hard-rock bands to emerge in the last 25 years."  The band are currently in the studio in Seattle writing and recording their first LP in over 15 years, which is set for release in 2012.

SOURCE Marvel Music/Hollywood Records