On paper, Rage Against The Machine reads like Beavis, Boogie Down Productions and Butt-Head: an angry and enlightened rap frontman who preaches a multi-cultural alternative to what they teach you in schools and show you on TV, backed by a funky heavy metal rhythm section whose vampage and riffing pay direct tribute to the likes of the Edgar Winter Group and Led Zeppelin.
But there's no sense of fusion here. Neither a metal band toying with rap nor a rap group fronting as a rock band, R.A.T.M. is four guys who were never told that there's a difference, and who don't care to know. The knowledge-is-good-but-schools-are-bad rap, "Take The Power Back," gives way to a metal instrumental bridge; and the guitar that introduces the Martin/Malcolm/Cassius homage, "Wake Up," pays its own tribute to Zeppelin's "Kashmir." The closest spiritual--but not stylistic--reference point are the alternative raps of the Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy; and Rage's "Bullet In The Head" may be the best song about TV since the Heroes' "Television, The Drug Of The Nation."
Rapper Zack De La Rocha has a thin voice that sounds more like a bored suburban thrasher than an inner-city rhyme animal, but his lyrics are something else altogether. Rising high above the nihilism of both hard-core rap and punk, he offers not just good slogans for a t-shirt, but the promise of a system to replace the one he's bent on destroying. His is a revolution with a purpose.
Rage Against The Machine: Zack De La Rocha (vocals); Tom Morello (guitar); Timmy C. (bass); Brad Wilk (drums).
Additional personnel: Maynard James Keenan (background vocals).
Engineers: Stan Katayama, GGGarth, Auburn Burell.
Recorded at Sound City, Van Nuys, California; Scream Studios, Studio City, California; Industrial Recording, North Hollywood, California.
- Format: Vinyl
- Genre: Rock, Metal
- 20th Anniversary Edition
- Remastered
- 180 Gram
- Remember, for our lowest prices, always order directly from our official JocoRecords website!
Track Listing
A1 Bombtrack
A2 Killing In The Name
A3 Take The Power Back
A4 Settle For Nothing
A5 Bullet In The Head
B1 Know Your Enemy
B2 Wake Up
B3 Fistful Of Steel
B4 Township Rebellion
B5 Freedom
