When he’s not busy roasting idiots on Twitter or reuniting Rage Against The Machine for real this time, militant guitar hero Tom Morello still makes his own music occasionally. Morello has decided “what better place than here, what better time than now” to announce his third LP under his own name, The Atlas Underground Fire.

As the title suggests, the album is a follow up to his debut LP The Atlas Underground, released back in 2018. While it’s only the third album to be credited under his birth name, Morello is no stranger to solo releases: he previously released folk-inspired protest music under the moniker The Nightwatchman, recording four albums between 2007 and 2011.

The Atlas Underground Fire is set to feature a whole slew of famous collaborators, including Bruce Springsteen, with whom Morello toured as a member of the E-Street Band in 2013 through 2014 and recorded with on Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball and High Hopes albums. Other featured artists on the new release include Eddie Vedder, Bring Me the Horizon, phem, Damian Marley, Sama’ Abdulhadi, Mike Posner.

The announcement comes with a preview in the form of Morello, Springsteen and Vedder covering AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’, which the trio previously performed together in Brisbane, Australia back in 2014. “Our version of ‘Highway To Hell’ pays homage to AC/DC but with Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Vedder, bringing this legendary song into the future,” Morello says in a press release. “One of the greatest rock’ n’ roll songs of all time sung by two of the greatest rock’ n’ roll singers of all time. And then I drop a shredding guitar solo. Thank you and good night.”

“This record was a life raft in a difficult time that allowed me to find new ways of creating new global artistic connections that helped transform a time of fear and anxiety into one of musical expression and rocking jams,” Morello explains. “During lockdown I had no access to an engineer so I had to record all of the guitar parts on the voice memo of my phone. This seemed like an outrageous idea but it led to a freedom in creativity in that I could not overthink any of the guitar parts and just had to trust my instincts.”

Check out the cover of ‘Highway to Hell’, plus the album’s tracklist, down below. The Atlas Underground Fire is set for an October 15 release.

The Atlas Underground Fire tracklisting:

1. Harlem Hellfighter 
2. Highway to Hell (featuring Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Vedder)
3. Let’s Get The Party Started (featuring Bring Me The Horizon)
4. Driving to Texas (featuring Phantogram)
5. The War Inside (featuring Chris Stapleton)
6. Hold The Line (featuring grandson)
7. Naraka (featuring Mike Posner)
8. The Achilles List (featuring Damian Marley)
9. Night Witch (featuring phem)
10. Charmed I’m Sure (featuring Protohype)
11. Save Our Souls (featuring Dennis Lyxzén of Refused)
12. On The Shore Of Eternity (featuring Sama’ Abdulhadi) 

Comments