World Wide Rebel Songs
New West Records
Hear a track:
Tom Morello playing the acoustic guitar is like Michael Jordan leaving basketball to play minor league baseball. It’s not that Morello is destined to be on the Mount Rushmore of guitarists, but as an electric guitarist he’s forged an undeniable style and influenced a generation of guitarists through his Whammy-slamming work with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. Thankfully, on his third solo album World Wide Rebel Songs, The Nightwatchman (Morello’s acoustic Johnny-Cash-meets-Che-Guevara alter ego) embraces his amplified roots and tracks with his touring band, the Freedom Fighter Orchestra. This ensemble adds much-needed firepower to Morello’s pro-union, freedom-for-all anthems.From the opening licks of “It Begins Tonight”—a fiery Audioslave “Cochise”- style riff on steroids—you instantly know this isn’t the same workingman troubadour. The song’s solo has the Grammy-winning guitarist going back to his wah-tastic ways creating a solo fit for Evil Empire-era RATM. The album’s first single, “Save the Hammer for the Man,” features soulful keyboard laced with steadfast strumming by Morello and guest guitarist Ben Harper. The song climaxes with dueling solos: Harper on lap steel and Morello working his pedalboard pyrotechnics. “Stray Bullets” depicts embittered American soldiers in Iraq accompanied by Morello’s version of Duane Eddy twang. Fist-pumping songs like “Black Spartacus Heart Attack Machine” and “World Wide Rebel Songs” offer a familiar Nightwatchman-esque folk-rock vibe with sing-along choruses and vigorous strumming on his “Whatever It Takes” Ibanez Galvador nylon-string. Slowpaced tracks like the sparse, remorseful “God Save Us All” and the downtrodden warning of “The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse” counterweigh the album’s bombastic rockers.
The instrumentation and compositions on World Wide Rebel Songs show off Morello’s abilities as an electric wizard and a soulful singer-songwriter, and the music’s dynamic range makes this the most muscular, well-rounded Nightwatchman album yet.
Slayer guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman formed the original searing 6-string front line of the most brutal band in the land. Together, they created an aggressive mood of malcontent with high-velocity thrash riffs and screeching solos that’ll slice your speaker cones. The only way to create a band more brutal than Slayer would be to animate them, and that’s exactly what Metalocalypse (and Home Movies) creator Brendon Small did.
From his first listen, Small has been a lifetime devotee and thrash-metal expert, so we invited him to help us break down what makes Slayer so great. Together, we dissect King and Hanneman’s guitar styles and list their angriest, most brutal songs, as well as those that create a mood of general horribleness.
This episode is sponsored by EMG Pickups.
Use code EMG100 for 15% off at checkout!
Learn more: emgpickups.com
Offering precise tuning accuracy and a super bright display screen, the Crazy Little Thing is approximately the size of your guitar pick – easy to use, unobtrusive and utterly dependable.
Housed in a sturdy shell, the Crazy Little Thing can be rotated for easy viewing from any angle, and its amazingly bright display makes it perfect for the sunniest outdoor stages or the darkest indoor studios. You can clip it to the front of your headstock or on the back of your headstock for extra-discreet usage – and you can easily adjust the display to accommodate your preference.
As the newest addition to Snark’s innovative line of headstock tuners, the Crazy Little Thing is rechargeable (no batteries!) and comes with a USB-C cable/adapter for easy charging. Its display screen includes a battery gauge, so you can easily tell when it’s time to recharge.
The Crazy Little Thing’s highly responsive tuning sensor works great with a broad range of instruments, including electric and acoustic guitar, bass, ukulele, mandolin and more. It also offers adjustable pitch calibration: its default reference pitch is A440, but also offers pitch calibration at 432Hz and 442 Hz.
Snark’s Crazy Little Thing rechargeable headstock tuner carries a street price of $21.99. For more information visit snarktuners.com.
