Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
Rock – Released November 3, 1992 – 10 songs, 53 mins
*****REID’S PICK*****
REID
The early 90’s, man. What an incredible time to be a music fan. The emergence of the grunge era, the rise of hip hop, the continued but evolving popularity of rock and pop music. It really was something special. 1991 and 1992 had album releases from Nirvana (Nevermind), Pearl Jam (Ten), A Tribe Called Quest (The Low End Theory), Red Hot Chili Peppers (Blood Sugar Sex Magik), Soundgarden (Badmotorfinger), Metallica (Black Album), Guns N’ Roses (Use Your Illusion I & II), Tom Petty (Into the Great Wide Open), U2 (Achtung Baby), 2Pac (2Pacalypse Now), The Smashing Pumpkins (Gish), Temple of the Dog (self-titled), Pantera (Vulgar Display of Power), Alice in Chains (Dirt) and Stone Temple Pilots (Core). And that’s filtered for those I recognize. What. A. List. Some of those bands were already superstars. Others, like the one on TSR’s list this week, were just getting started.
As a new act on the scene, Rage Against the Machine made a statement before a single note was even played. The name, from an abandoned song in singer, Zach de la Rocha’s previous band, is gripping and intriguing. The album cover is a photo of a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who set himself on fire in Saigon in 1963, in protest of the president’s oppression of his religion. What is this foursome hinting at?
Before I get into the music, take a few minutes to watch this video of a first time Rage listener. It’s great:
Opening up with Bombtrack, Rage offers a unique display of metal, funk and hip hop. They do so powerfully with a political agenda and an impressive level of confidence and swagger, especially for a debut. That riff and de la Rocha’s delivery is high quality stuff. Killing in the Name Of is one of the greatest rock songs of all time. It was written about systemic racism around the time LAPD’s beating of Rodney King was captured on camera. The song itself was their first single and arguably their most popular. The build ups, the vocals, the ending. It has it all. Take the Power Back is another great song, aimed at the failures of the American education system. 29 years later and these are still seemingly daily topics in the news cycle. Sad. Settle for Nothing is the only low point on the album for me. I could never get into it. Bullet in the Head and Know Your Enemy continue that in-your-face, bad ass style. Guitarist, Tom Morello, is given the freedom to do his thing and his creativity adds a layer to the band’s identity. When music has been a part of your life for so long, you can associate it with specific memories. These two remind me of people watching on long walks between the engineering and science buildings while attending Memorial University of Newfoundland. Wake Up always makes me think of the closing scene in The Matrix. Gotta love the 90’s nostalgia. The guitar sounds a lot like Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir but it’s believed to be unintentional. The pacing bass, shrieking guitar and amazing lyrics of Fistful of Steel make another can’t miss song. I love two lyrics in this one; ‘…not a silent one, But a defiant one, never a normal one, ‘Cause I’m the bastard son’ and ‘Steppin’ into the jam and I’m slammin like Shaquille, Mad boy grips the microphone with a fistful of steel’. Hell yeah! Township Rebellion and Freedom offer much more of the same, I won’t bore with redundancy. Words don’t do justice, just listen. What a way to close out an album.
“Why stand on a silent platform? Fight the war. Fuck the norm.” Rage Against the Machine did exactly that on this album and for the rest of their career. I don't think there will ever be another band to perfect this style in the way Rage did. Countdown to Coachella 2022 is on.
Overall Rating – 9.6/10
Favourite Song – Killing In The Name
ROZ
Rage Against the Machine is a band that is well known for not only their unique style but also for the strong messages that they relay. Blending the genres of rock, punk and hip hop and led by De La Rocha’s powerful voice (and his apparently indestructible vocal cords), this isn’t the type of music that calls for passive listening. In other words, I had to make sure I was properly situated and in the right frame of mind and location in order to get all of my listens in for this one.
While I was too young at the time to witness the effects of Rage’s titular album on the airwaves, I can only imagine how mired in controversy they must have been. Killing in the Name directly addresses the Rodney King beating in ’91 and the racial undertones behind it (“some of those that work forces, are the same that burn crosses”) while Bullet in the Head goes into corrupt government and how the media brainwashes the masses (“serene on the screen, you were mesmerized, cell phones sounding like the death tone…believe all the lies they’re telling you, buying all the products their selling you”). Know Your Enemy goes against the US government waging wars and directly attacks the idea of the “American Dream”, proclaiming that all of the power and money in society is really controlled by the very few.
Damn that is heavy. Does any of this ring a bell? That’s the craziest thing about Rage – all of these socio-economic, governmental, and cultural plights still exist in the word today damn near 30 years later. Racism is still an ongoing issue as can be seen in the George Floyd killing and the BLM movement. Mainstream media, specifically social media, has created echo chambers that has spawned ridiculous (at best) and dangerous (at worst) groups such as Flat Earthers, Capitol rioters and Anti-Vaxxers; the latter causing actual societal damage and death during this COVID-19 pandemic. Lastly, look no further than the US pulling out of Afghanistan (decades after arriving) to see how the military industrial complex has been alive and well since this album came to be, still dominating our news cycle 30 years later.
Musically, there’s a universe’s worth of talent between these guys. As I touched on in the beginning, Zach de la Rocha sings with an intensity and passion that seems almost unmatched – at some points I feel as though his vocal cords are about to tear in half (Killing in the Name, Settle for Nothing, Bullet in The Head, Township Rebellion). Tom Morello is an actual wizard on the guitar and employs techniques that go way beyond my knowledge of guitar-playing, so I won’t even begin to explain what was going on (particularly that screech effect and solo in Fistful of Steel, the guitar solos in Take the Power Back, Know Your Enemy and Township Rebellion). Tim Commerford slaps the bass like no other (both Bombtrack and Take the Power Back standing out in my mind), and Brad Wilk maintains the groove throughout the entire album with his skillful drum work. Everything comes together cohesively in the mix while pushing boundaries in their own right, an ability that I always seek out when doing my reviews.
Almost everything that the boys had issues with back in the 90’s are still alive and well in the 2020’s; perhaps it is this depressing fact that led to the band’s eventual disbandment. It definitely has to be a punch in the gut when you realize that your powerful message is falling on deaf ears, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the case. Fast forward to present time: Rage is back on tour and after missing them in Boston due to COVID cancellation I’m very excited to say that me and my fellow TSR members will be catching them on the mainstage of Coachella in 2022. With a message as powerful as ever in a world that is as messed up as ever, Rage Against the Machine’s issues with society hit as hard as their drums and guitars do – summed up in one word, this album is timeless.
Overall Rating: 9.2/10
Favourite Song: Killing In The Name
LUNDI
Just a few months before COVID changed all of our lives TSR was not even an idea and the three of us were blowing up a group chat with news that Rage Against the Machine were reuniting. Being long time festival fanatics we were now primed to see a bucket list band while America found itself in a new state of political turmoil. Much has changed since but one plan remains, TSR will see RATM reunite and what better way to celebrate than to look back on their critically acclaimed debut.
‘No samples, keyboards or synthesizers used in the making of this record' the RATM album sleeve reads. This being a mantra that the band has taken on across several albums. And man do you ever feel it. Each band member succeeds in adding their own element to amplify the output and the foursome absolutely packs a punch that will knock you off your feet.
Of course Zach de la Rocha’s lyricism and vocals stand out across the entire album while bassist Tim Commerford’s feel it in your bones bass lines shine on Bombtrack and Killing in the Name and drummer Brad Wilk pulls every song together with perfect pacing and a hard hitting kick drum. But nothing even quite comes close to what guitarist Tom Morello brings to RATM. His unique and offbeat playing style filled with guitar effects is second to none. The old saying ‘often imitated, never duplicated’ comes to mind here which you could certainly argue encompasses the entire band given the importance of Rage in the musical landscape.
Rage Against the Machine is relentless in nature. It’s a straight up “fuck you” to those in power from the voice of the restless. The band channels so much energy into the 10 tracks that the outcome is nothing short of ground breaking.
Overall Rating: 9.0/10
Favourite Song: Killing In The Name