If it is useless to introduce the guitarist of the band Rage Against The Machine, Tom Morello, who, armed with a six-string and a flawless imagination, participated in the reinvention of an instrument that was thought to be destined to decorate fireplaces like the outdated hunting trophies of an outdated time, it is imperative to mention his curiosity and his insatiable thirst for novelty.
Guitarist does not necessarily mean "rock" or "pop" but simply "music" and this is what Tom Morello and his guests try to make the listener understand, meandering between breakbeat, metal, synthpop and other definitions that are essential to get to the heart of what really matters: the songs.
Twelve tracks composed during the pandemic, when the world is at a standstill and a workaholic like Tom Morello has to sit still for the first time since he was 17 years old. To save what's left of his sanity, riffs are recorded on his iPhone and sent to fellow artists all over the world. Not to create an album, as his creator admits, but to endure the period, to get to the end of the days, to see a little light.
The result is a collection of sounds as varied as the list of collaborators. Bring Me The Horizon revives the flame of Audioslave and Against The Machine ('Let's Get The Party Started'), Phantogram takes the composer along a synthetic desert road ('Driving To Texas') where he meets up with Mike Posner ('Naraka') before distorting everything in his path with Grandson for an electrified and terrifying 'Hold The Line' and an incandescent 'The Achilles List' with none other than Damian Marley. As for the trio formed with Eddie Vedder and the Boss Springsteen on 'Highway To Hell', it offers a window on what the master of strings envisioned: lightness in these dramatic times, a union to brave the distance, a luminous communion in the form of a map of Hell.
Where everyone would like to stay and howl with them.