REVIEWS:
A somewhat controversial band due to their often heavily violent politicized lyrics and their stands on certain issues (most recently, the freedom of supposed cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal), Rage Against The Machine is probably among the more popular hard rock bands in the 90s for not only their uncompromising musical and lyrical attack, but also for guitarist Tom Morello's wildly innovative guitar work. He always manages to make it sound like anything but a guitar, and that definitely makes things interesting, because the problem with a band name like Rage Against The Machine is that the sound and style of the band are inevitably going to be limited (most of their songs present the same angry and violent mood), so they need any instrumental textures / additions to keep things from becoming stale.
Their self-titled first album in 1992 was the initial blast of venomous songwriting and energy, and they were able to maintain their popularity with their long awaited sophomore effort Evil Empire in '96, which featured the significant hit "Bulls On Parade" and its' phenomenal, inventive guitar solo. Their third release, The Battle Of Los Angeles, followed in 1999, and after their following covers album Renegades, Zakk De La Rocha left the band, and the remaining three members formed a new project Audioslave (reviewed below) with Chris Cornell of Soundgarden fame on lead vocals.
--Nick Karn
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COMMENTS
Rage is one helluva rhythm based band, but does anybody else notice that Mr.Tom Morello seems to have the exact same sound in every single album? He even sounds like he's using the exact same chords from album to album with a kickass effect solo here and there, and different rhythms. But damn, the rhythms. Some of the catchiest shit ever to come out of the 90s was penned by the Ragers.
Anyways, Tim Bob and Brad Wilk make up one of the most powerful, heaviest rhythm sections known to man. Just listen to those thunderous drums! Now try to tell me that Fieldy's super detuned weightless slapping comes even close. Great power trio. I have a problem with Zack's monotonous rapping style, though.
I'm dissapointed how everyone whines about how the fuckin bass and sound and guitar is not in the place they like or how the album bores them!!! Wake up motherfuckers!!! Its not just about how it sounds, its almost more important what they are saying especially Rage Against The Machine!!! I guess you people dont know shit about History or what the fuck is happening in the world which is what rage is trying to tell you about, wake up motherfuckers!!!
Raise your fist and Resist!!!
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
The band's debut sounds almost like the work of a musically skilled punk band with a whole lot of intent - the riffs of Tom Morello are fairly straightforward (although his solos are anything but), the rhythm section of Tim Bob (bass) and Brad Wilk (drums) really set up irresistible funk grooves, and the songwriting is definitely in your face, with the immediately angry, poisonous voice of Zakk De La Rocha up front ranting about the political problems of the world and hypocritical society with a lot of metaphors (often gun and bullet) presented within the lyrics, so yeah, it's basically a very formulaic album with not a terrible amount of difference in presentation between each song, but it absolutely explodes so well it's not even like I care about the band's shortcomings here.
The opener "Bombtrack" is your prototypical Rage Against The Machine song I guess, with all aspects of their sound already in place - you can feel the adrenaline rushing in your head with that chorus - 'BURN BURN YES YOU'RE GONNA BURN!!!!!' "Killing In The Name", meanwhile, is defiantly rebellious, with forceful repeating of 'fuck you I won't do what you told me' really bringing the point home. The riffs in this song are also on fire (particularly that intro) and the energy is unbelievable. Instrumentally, "Take The Power Back" has more of a focus on the band's funk side, with an irresistible bass and drum groove and amazing vocal and lyrical delivery. "Settle For Nothing" is a sort of 'evil' dark ballad that ends with the heavy, desperate cries of 'if we don't take action now, we'll settle for nothing later', while "Bullet In The Head" practically has 'shotgun like' intensity as the side closer with brilliant guitar textures contrasting the song's mood and the funk flowing throughout.
The second half opener "Know Your Enemy", meanwhile, may be Rage's greatest single song - the riff is so hard-hitting and the band performs it extremely well. It's where the live energy is perfect to the point it's almost impossible not to mosh along, and the lyrics are convincing at their best. The song is also enhanced by a guest vocal from Maynard James Keenan of Tool in the bridge. Following is "Wake Up", the most inventive song guitar wise, which is saying a lot - the soloing is accomplished and phenomenal, the riff is highly dramatic and the vocal emotion runs high (love that ending).
The last three songs are lesser numbers which are still OK but within them it most sounds like the formula is running dry - "Fistful Of Steel" has a good riff but it's kind of stale, "Township Rebellion" has a powerful bassline but then goes into a tired section that doesn't fit the rest of the song, and "Freedom", has good time changes but, like the other two songs, goes on much too long (all three are over six minutes). It's a disappointing end to the album after such a powerful rush of songs, and the band would sound even more drained and formulaic on the follow up.
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COMMENTS
Its pretty good, but I prefer the next release more. One thing I do notice about the bands lyrics----they seem to have a whole lot of crap about "Radio" on it. Take even, the new single from the new album "Guerilla Radio". Heehee. Anyways, another thing I notice here is that at least the outtro to two songs "Bombtrack" and "Know Your Enemy" sound EXACTLY the same. Or wait, is that "Freedom" and "Know your Enemy"? Hmmm, I'm confused. It aint bad though. I'd give it a six, and that killer single "Killing in the Name Of" makes it all worth it.
[email protected] (RYAN CHARTIER)
I feel that this is the best rage cd because it was the first. The best song on here is "killing in the name". It really shows the rebellious attitude that the band was heading toward. "Bullet in the head" and "wake up" are also great. The weakest song on here is township rebellion for it trys to be an anthem but just gets annoying. most of the songs have great basslines. Tim Bob and Brad Wilk are highly underated I think, and help the band out with its rap metal mixture. RATM IS THE ONLY RAP/METAL BAND THAT WILL EVER MATER!!!!! LIMP BIZKIT CAN SUCK MY DICK FOR ALL I CARE BECAUSE ALL THEIR SONGS SUCK AND SO DOES THE BAND!!!!! FRED JUST QUIT THE BAND BECAUSE YOUR NOT HELPING IT. YOU CANT SING FOR SHIT AND YOU CANT RAP EITHER!!!!! RATM FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think that Tom Morello is a genius and the album is kickass. Timmy C. and Brad Wilk provide a perfect hard rythm section for Tom to do his amazing solo's. And yes, many of the riffs are the same but nevertheless they in your face and hardcore riffs. Plus, Rage Against The Machine isnt all about the music, they have some very significant politicals views also and point out many injustices aroudn the world.
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Rage's long awaited followup to their smash debut is basically a slower, tired, disappointing version of the same thing, and it's a pretty difficult listen as a result. The 'in your face' feel is still there, but in very limited amounts, Zakk De La Rocha at some points doesn't even try to sing - some of this stuff just sounds like spoken word rants or rapped out lyrical cliches, the rhythm section doesn't make things anything more interesting, so the band has to rely on the continuing presence of Tom Morello to save the day (which, as strong as his performance is, he just can't do it). You wouldn't know the inspiration is running low for the punkish political rocker "People Of The Sun", however - it's a great live sounding, very singable and forceful song. The hit single "Bulls On Parade" boasts a ridiculously direct and addictive riff with similarly attention grabbing, ranting lyrics and vocals, and of course, one of the greatest guitar solos of all time coming later - Morello recreates the feel of a turntable somehow on his instrument.
However, the album becomes frustratingly more consistent - in that the songs are just consistently 'decent' and nothing more, with not a terrible amount of engaging qualities within them, whether the song is way too much of an overly repetitive rant (the anti-radio "Vietnow"), too musically simple ("Tire Me" - whose riff has been recycled by countless 90s bands), feeling too much like a dull spoken word poetry session (which mars the astonishing instrumental intro to "Revolver"), lacking in inspiration, actual melody or thought-provoking qualities ("Wind Below", "Roll Right", "Snakecharmer", "Down Rodeo"), playing out like mediocre punk rock ("Year Of Tha Boomerang"), or really making me wonder if the album was worth the wait for fans (the tired and uninvolved funk of "Without A Face"). Yawn - this album is worse than I remembered when I actually put it in perspective.
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Good album! Pretty consistant. And oh, how I love "Down Rodeo". Simply one of the catchiest chord progressions ever penned. I'd give it a 7.
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
A big improvement over the last album in overall energy, groove and intensity, The Battle Of Los Angeles also has more of a pronounced hip hop feel than the previous efforts, apparent immediately in the opening track "Testify", which is built on a repetitive, almost 'noise groove' driven by a weird guitar sound and the vocal delivery that complements it. The phenomenal "Mic Check", meanwhile, is about as close as a band can get to a hardcore rap feel without the use of turntables or samples (yes, the mind-numbing background sound Tom Morello creates here is done by guitar) and it really benefits from a growling chorus ('I be the anti-myth rhythm rock shocker') - it very well could be my favorite Rage track, while the closing "War Within A Breath" is very dark and uncertain within the great guitar atmospherics and venomous Zakk De La Rocha raps. Morello even manages to simulate a piano at the beginning of the dark, introspective side closer "Born Of A Broken Man".
There's also the mandatory anti-radio song, this coming lead single "Guerilla Radio", meanwhile, sounds like a "Vietnow" rewrite but has more energy and drive than that track, and the song picks up come solo time. "Calm Like A Bomb", "Born As Ghosts" and "Maria" are fine examples of the powerful funky grooves the rhythm section of Tim Bob (known as Y.tim.K and TIM.COM in the liner notes here) and Brad Wilk have always been able to create, and the fascinating, instrumentally futuristic-sounding "Voice Of The Voiceless" is De La Rocha's tribute to the aforementioned Mumia Abu Jamal. Overall, this album is a fairly consistent set of typical Rage rockers and innovative guitar work as usual, even though only a few of the tracks ("Testify", "Mic Check", "War Within A Breath") are truly brilliant standouts.
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Wow, I love "Guerilla Radio". GREAT song. Just listen to that catchy as shit ascending bassline behind the vocals. Why can't other people so such cool things with the bassline? Thats what made Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) so great----the fact that he treated the bass like another guitar, not just a plunk plunk one note repeated over and over kinda thing. Anyway, don't have the album, but I may have it soon thanks to 'Guerilla". GREAT song.
| Audioslave | 2002 |
After Zakk De La Rocha's departure preceded the breakup of Rage Against The Machine, the remaining three members of the band got together with Soundgarden's Chris Cornell for a 'supergroup' of sorts and recorded a number of songs together. There was not surprisingly some tension between them in the beginning (which caused Cornell to leave for a brief period of time), but they worked out whatever differences they had and released their self-titled debut, essentially a mix of both Soundgarden and Rage.
--Nick Karn
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COMMENTS
AUDIOSLAVE! WHAT A BAND! I TELL YA! COMBINING THE HELLISH GRUNGE OF SOUNDGARDEN WITH THE GODZILLA STOMPING ATTACK OF RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE! THEY ARE THE ONES WHO CAN SAVE US FROM THE RAP MARATHONS AND THIS SHIT AND THAT SHIT! IF 2003 IS THE WHOLE 50 CENT YEAR WELL FUCK YOU! US ROCKERS HATE THAT KIND OF SHIT HE IS THE REASON AMERICA IS DYIN'! FUCK YOU 50 CENT SUCKS DOG COCK AUDIOSLAVE SAVE AMERICA! GO! GO! GO! GO! GO! GO! GO! GO! GO!
They fucking suck
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
I'm not going to start this review off in a silly 'bedtime story' manner in which Adrian Denning wrote his thoughts on the album (partially because I lack the sort of creativity to do so), but rather offer my thoughts on how well this collaboration of sorts actually works. You see, the members of Rage Against The Machine had started to, umm, stagnate a bit in the songwriting department - Zakk's political rants in every song was getting a bit monotonous, the players seemed to start running out of neat textures and grooves, and their covers album was rather hit-and-miss from what I've heard (their annihilation of "Street Fighting Man" in particular is simply unforgivable), so when they hooked up with Chris Cornell, whose singing style and lyrical approach has never fit the political mindset Rage employed, I have to admit I was kind of curious in how this project would work out. And for the most part, despite the decline in Cornell's vocals among other minor weaknesses, it really does work.
In fact, were it not for the fact that this album has no reason to be over 65 minutes long given the limited style (and a few songs sounding very similar to each other), I would have probably given it a higher rating. Well, that, and a couple of the songs are really lame - I know "Cochise" was a big hit, but aside from the really cool guitar 'fireworks' intro build and neat bass tone, it's a good example of a typically half-assed songwriting approach in the 'nu metal' era, with that boring riff, totally cliched 'save yourself...' chorus, and the most hoarse singing on here. Argh. There's also the sleepy blues of "Getaway Car" near the end of the album that doesn't do a thing, and a couple of the other songs are somewhat unnecessary, like the generic anthemic tune "Show Me How To Live" and the bland Rage 101 groove of "Exploder" (with an annoying 'dan-da-da-da' vocal ending), but the rest of the album (still close to 50 minutes, in fact) is very good stuff.
The middle songs here are probably where Audioslave really cooks, especially when there's a mellower direction not heard amongst the three Rage musicians before. In particular the refrain of "Like A Stone" definitely ranks among modern rock radio's more haunting and desperate ('I waaaaaait for youuuu theeeere...'), and is that a Beatles-esque chord progression I hear in the bridge there following the weird Tom Morello soloing? "Shadow Of The Sun" also has an eerie night vibe with that quiet opening guitar line and subtle singing (woohoo!) and a thundering apocalyptic chorus (to hear Cornell belt out 'shaaaaadow of the suuuuuuuuuun....' is awesome!), while "I Am The Highway" actually brings colorful lyrical imagery to the table over an expansive, almost 50's ballad-style guitar sound. Later on in the album, there's the closing hopeless beauty of "The Last Remaining Light" that probably would have turned into some dark spoken-word essay or something like that in the hands of 'old' Rage.
Heck, they even delve into a dance groove on "Hypnotize", with the 'pulsing' effects and addictive rhythm going on, and "Gasoline", while sounding like a perfectly conventional Rage rocker at the core, is given more dimension through Cornell's personality (and the occasional guitar tone that sounds right out of Badmotorfinger) and the 'splashing' percussion segment. Also in the 'power rock' field, "Set It Off" is like a pounding chanting anthem Rage used to write, only with, you know, a real vocal melody instead of the standard rapping pattern, and some really cool guitar effects and 'dissonant' intro. It's creative tinges like this that definitely shine amongst the potential huge monotony of this album (like the grooves from the unusually repetitive and bland rhythm section), and definitely push it into 'good' territory. Sure, there's not much here that's going to blow you away unless you're a huge fan of this sound, and the album could use a bit of trimming, but all in all, this is a worthwhile collaboration we have here.
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COMMENTS
Great record. I always liked RATM's music, but De La Rocha's rapping sometimes got on my nerves. I always wondered what RATM would sound like with a singer instead of a rapper, so when I heard that Chris Cornell had joined up, I was anxious to hear the results. I wasn't disappointed. No, there are no breakthroughs on this album, but the songs here are consistently good. It has classic RATM-oriented grooves, but with melodies that stick in your head.
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