Tom Morello Announces New Solo Album and Upcoming Single

Legendary guitarist from Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, and Prophets of Rage, Tom Morello, announced the upcoming release of what he’s calling his first full-length rock solo album yesterday, and teased the new single called “Soldier in the Army Love” which is due out later this month. Here’s what he wrote on Instagram:

“Excited to announce that SOLDIER IN THE ARMY OF LOVE, the debut single from my first ever full length solo rock album, is coming out June 28th! Co-written with my guitar wizard son, Roman Morello, it’s a generational rock anthem from the Morello’s.”

While this is exciting news that there’s new music coming from Morello, and it will be a lot of fun to hear what his son sounds like on the guitar, it does raise one very important question: What the fuck is he talking about? Tom Morello already has a whole trilogy of solo albums released between 2018 and 2021 called The Atlas Underground, The Atlas Underground Fire, and The Atlas Underground Flood. So, in what way is this is first full-length solo rock album? Is he not counting those three because they have rap-rock songs on them? That seems like an odd distinction to make, especially because not all of the songs have rap elements to them. At one point, he does a cover of an AC/DC song with Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Vedder, which is about as pure-rock ‘n’ roll as you can get.

Then there’s the Nightwatchman, which was a solo project Morello did that didn’t use the name “Tom Morello,” but it was Morello playing an alter ego. That project put out three full-length albums and an EP. So it’s a little hard to call this new album his first solo rock album without feeling a little bit dishonest.