Doug Gatta presents “Unknown Soldier,” a thunderous new single that can’t be ignored, felt, or forgotten. Debuts today, drive it, or pull it. It was conceived at one of the holiest of desert grails, Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree, California, a desert spot where the spirits of Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys, and Queens of the Stone Age whisper within the walls.
Gatta is not merely following in those legends’ footsteps, he brings them into the room. Helped in its production by Alain Johannes Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, Dave Catching, and John Russo, “Unknown Soldier” shares the DNA of desert rock royalty. Johannes also does his distinctive fingerprint justice with his work on it, ultimately contributing to the aforementioned quality of the track as it builds layer upon textured layer. “Unknown Soldier” unspools like a slow-burning mirage, swirling guitars drenched in reverb, a groove that trudges like a march through hallowed earth, and Gatta’s voice, raw, reverberant, reverent. It’s not a protest song, and it’s not a mere tribute, it’s a reckoning. One that calls out to the ghosts of battles past, the obvious and the silent pain, and those who fight them alone in stoic silence.
There’s an emotional gravity here that can’t be faked. Perhaps it’s the desert air, maybe it’s the history-soaked studio, and perhaps it is Gatta’s very ability to access the unspoken truths we all carry. Whatever it is, “Unknown Soldier” arrives with the weight of something significant.
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