Tom Morello has never been shy about using volume to support his politics. Across his work with Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave, his playing helped prove that heavy, abrasive guitar work could stand shoulder to shoulder with radical thinking. Now, on his first dedicated solo rock record, Everyone Gets Everything They Want, Morello has reached out to Belfast hip-hop outfit Kneecap. The resulting track, Unconquered, marks a deliberate bridge between two different eras of confrontational music. Released through Mom + Pop on Friday, September 25, the cut finds common ground between veteran guitar experiments and the rapid energy of modern Irish rap.
Musically, Unconquered pulls together the crossover elements that first defined Morello's career. The song leans on sharp riffs, frantic electronic percussion, and the vocal trade between Kneecap MCs Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap. Rapping in both Irish and English, the pair move at high speed, pushing the tempo before Morello steps forward with a warped, recognizable solo. The blend places heavy rock, hip-hop phrasing, and electronic production inside the same room, refusing to separate the distinct lanes each act usually occupies.
When Morello reached out to the Belfast trio, he arrived with very specific terms. He set three rules from the beginning. First, the song had to be titled Unconquered. Second, it had to contain an undeniable, devastating hook. Third, it had to produce enough raw energy to tear through a festival crowd. For Morello, the song represents a stubborn spirit of resistance, one that refuses to break in the face of state violence, repression, or terror. In his eyes, that defiant thread connects university campuses, refugee camps, and concert stages stretching from Dublin to Detroit, with the central aim of making a single guitar channel the momentum of an entire revolution.
Morello has spent considerable time admiring Kneecap from afar, going so far as to call them the contemporary counterpart to Rage Against The Machine. His appreciation was sparked well before any recent political controversies, catching his attention when he first watched their feature film. Seeing the movie, Morello recognized a creative kinship in how the group operates. In particular, he noted the group's unreserved alignment with oppressed communities, an instinct that made working together feel like a natural extension of his own lifelong focus.
Unconquered serves as one chapter in a much larger, personal record. Everyone Gets Everything They Want stands as Morello's first true solo rock LP, arriving as the twenty-second album of his broader discography. He framed the writing process as a direct answer to rising authoritarianism across the globe, defining rebellion as a form of self-care and rock music as personal self-defence for people pushed past their limits. The rest of the tracklist draws on a varied circle of collaborators, featuring System Of A Down frontman Serj Tankian and metalcore outfit Beartooth, along with Morello's fifteen-year-old son Roman, who added guitar riffs across five separate tracks.
The collaboration arrives during a busy stretch for Kneecap as well. The group released their second studio album, Fenian, back in May, and they are now preparing to take the material on an extensive Fenian world tour. That road schedule includes a full run across the UK and Ireland, which is set to launch in Southampton on November 28 and work its way toward a headline date at Dublin's 3Arena on December 16. With Unconquered now out in the world, both acts carry that shared agitation back out in front of audiences.
