Tom Morello has just previewed his next solo full-length with a heavy-riffed new single called “Soldier In the Army of Love.” What’s more, the track marks the first time the Rage Against the Machine hero has let his 13-year-old son, Roman, outshine him with a guest guitar solo.
The song had popped up in Tom Morello’s live set earlier this month when he played England’s Download Festival. Around the time, Morello had explained in an interview with Guitar Interactive Magazine that the groove-bent feel of the song actually came from his son, who he’d learned during COVID lockdowns was following the family trade by cookin’ up sick sounds on a six-string.
“One day, I was walking by his bedroom, and he was playing these awesome drop-D heavy riffs,” Morello said. “I’m like, ‘What is that?’ And he’s like, ‘I just came up with them.’ So, we did this song. He wrote the riffs. I produced it and kind of play on it. But the guitar solo is him, as well.”
Praised by the elder Morello as “a generational anthem,” “Soldier in the Army of Love” definitely needles into that classic, syncopated, RATM-adjacent, drop-tuned riff rock, but also has a bit of a southern-fried, Seventies freedom-rock flavor once it gets to those vocal harmonies in the chorus. As for Roman’s solo, the younger Morello has inherited much of his father’s flair for the dramatic.
You can check out the new studio version of “Soldier in the Army of Love” up above, and a live performance at Download down below.
The full details have yet to drop on Tom Morello’s next album, including whether Roman will pop up anywhere else on there. The as-yet-untitled project will be Morello’s first full-length since his collaborations-heavy The Atlas Underground Flood release from 2021, and his first-ever full-length solo rock album.