Tom Morello bares his sonic Teeth on 5 Seconds Of Summer’s surprisingly riffy new single
Rage Against The Machine guitarist lends his trademark Whammy antics to fresh track
Australian pop-rockers and former teen heartthrobs 5 Seconds Of Summer know their way around a hook, but they’ve spent years trying to establish their credentials as serious players among the muso community - hell, lead guitarist Michael Clifford even has his own Gibson signature electric guitar. Perhaps now they’ll convince the doubters with a little help from their pal Tom Morello, who guests on new single, Teeth.
Led by a snaking bassline, complemented by a fuzzed-up guitar counterpart, Teeth sees Morello lending his trademark Whammy stabs and toggle-switching technique to overdubs peppered throughout the track.
We’re not quite sure how the collaboration came to pass, but sonically, the resultant track wouldn’t sound out of place on any Muse record from the past two years - a band with whom Morello toured recently, after which Matt Bellamy gifted him a custom-made Manson guitar.
Teeth follows 5SOS’s summer single Easier, which itself was inspired by Nine Inch Nails. Whatever you make of the band, sneaking more guitar into the mainstream sounds good to us...
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Mike is Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com, in addition to being an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict. He has a master's degree in journalism from Cardiff University, and over a decade's experience writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as 20 years of recording and live experience in original and function bands. During his career, he has interviewed the likes of John Frusciante, Chris Cornell, Tom Morello, Matt Bellamy, Kirk Hammett, Jerry Cantrell, Joe Satriani, Tom DeLonge, Ed O'Brien, Polyphia, Tosin Abasi, Yvette Young and many more. In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock under the nom de plume Maebe.