Kneecap and Tom Morello have shared their huge, Rage Against The Machine-coded collaboration ‘Unconquered’ – listen below.
The track appears on the Rage and Audioslave guitarist’s new solo album ‘Everyone Gets Everything They Want’, which arrived on Friday (September 25) via Mom + Pop.
‘Unconquered’ brings together Morello’s trademark serrated guitar work with frantic electronic percussion and rapid-fire verses from Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap, delivered in both Irish and English.
The combination lands firmly in the territory that first made Morello famous, fusing hip-hop, hard rock and electronic textures before breaking into a characteristically warped guitar solo.
Check it out below.
Speaking to NME ahead of the album’s release, Morello said ‘Unconquered’ was intended to capture an enduring spirit of opposition in the face of repression.
“That song is about the unconquered spirit – from college campuses to refugee camps to concert stages from Dublin to Detroit,” he said.
“The ember that does not go out, no matter how great the repression, state violence and state terror directed against people or artists. As long as there’s breath in our lungs and electricity in our Marshall stacks, that spirit will remain unconquered.”
He added: “With this song, the idea was to make one guitar sound like an entire revolution.”
Morello has long expressed admiration for the Belfast trio, previously describing Kneecap as “clearly the Rage Against The Machine of now”.
Explaining to NME how the collaboration came together, he said: “I’ve been a fan since their inception. I saw the Kneecap movie long before any of the political controversy and thought, ‘What a great fucking group’.”
“The fact that a group so fearlessly aligns with the world’s oppressed as part of who they are as a band is something that’s near and dear to my heart,” he continued. “I see a kinship with Kneecap.”
Morello said he gave the trio three requirements when he approached them about making the song.
“When I first reached out, I said there’s only three criteria for this song,” he explained. “One: it’s got to be called ‘Unconquered’. Two: it’s got to have a devastating hook. And three, it’s got to rock a festival like crazy!”
“We checked all three of those boxes.”
‘Everyone Gets Everything They Want’ is Morello’s first solo rock album and his 22nd record overall. It also features collaborations with System Of A Down frontman Serj Tankian, Beartooth and Morello’s 15-year-old son Roman, who contributed riffs to five of its tracks.
Morello told NME that the record was shaped by what he described as the growing “spectre of authoritarianism” around the world.
“In this hour, rebellion is an act of self-care and rock ‘n’ roll is an act of self-defence,” he said.
“‘Everyone Gets Everything They Want’ is music made out of total necessity. It’s my first solo rock album, my 22nd album in my career and it’s a record for everyone who’s had enough.”
Kneecap, meanwhile, released their second album ‘Fenian’ in May. NME awarded the record four-and-a-half stars, describing it as “a solid, progressive and fearless album” that saw the trio “reach power and maturity”.
They have since announced a huge ‘Fenian’ world tour, with UK and Ireland dates beginning in Southampton on November 28 and concluding at Dublin’s 3Arena on December 16.
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