LISTEN: Knife Party And Tom Morello Share New Song “Battle Sirens”

Photo Credit: Marv Watson

The Australian electronic dance duo Knife Party has released a collaborative single, “Battle Sirens”, with Rage Against the Machine and Prophets of Rage guitarist Tom Morello. Knife Party, with Morello in tow, debuted the track live earlier this year at Ultra Music Festival.

The new single violently mashes together Knife Party’s dance-infused electronic drops and pulsating synthetic percussion with Morello funk-infused heavy guitar.

“‘Battle Sirens’ is the cross genre hard guitar/hard EDM mashup I’ve been waiting to hear for years,” Morello said in a press release. “The devastating grooves, monster drops and insane tension that are a hallmark of both Knife Party and Rage Against the Machine are elevated to a crazy level with this jam

Morello’s not entirely wrong. The song does contain “devastating grooves, monster drops and insane tension.” However, these elements, combined without any finesse, are counterintuitive to one another. Morello’s scorching riffs work well as a singular unit, as do Knife Party’s electronics. The resultant track is by all means an acceptable EDM, festival ready track, albeit one completely devoid of true personality.

Somewhat surprisingly, Morello first approached Knife Party about the potential collaborative production.

“Tom hit us up when we were in the studio saying he’d always loved the idea of merging his guitar riffs into the electronic world and we bounced some ideas back and forth until we had the final version,” Knife Party’s two members told Rolling Stone in a joint statement. “Performing this track live as a surprise during our Ultra set was insane.”

Knife Party is currently scheduled to continue their world tour through September and October. This includes single scheduled US date, October 15th at the Rawhide Rodeo Arena in Chandler, Arizona. The duo has released a single full-length LP, 2014’s Abandon Ship, and four EP’s, the most recent being 2015’s Trigger Warning.

Morello, meanwhile, is currently touring with supergroup Prophets of Rage. The group recently released their debut EP, the six-track The Party’s Over, on August 25.