Rage Against the Machine is synonymous with my experience of becoming politically aware during my early teen years. I’ll never forget borrowing their album Evil Empire from my friend Ryan Polk in seventh grade, sneaking it into my house to avoid the peering eyes of my mom (who definitely wouldn’t be happy with the rabble rousing on this record), and entering a world where music actually stood for something. And whether you agree with all of RATM’s stances on global and national politics over the years, you can’t help but respect the hell out of their convictions. This was a band that compromised absolutely nothing during their historic run in the 90’s and steadfastly stood by those ideals.
Their self-titled 1992 debut lives and breathes the intensity of that creation, much of which was recorded at the legendary Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California. The spring sessions at the historic recording studio (which I covered two years ago after watching Dave Grohl’s excellent documentary) came after the band had road-tested many of the songs through their demo tape. The band basically was ready to go when they entered that studio. All that pre-work gave them a tightness long before entering the studio so they could basically unleash holy hell once they got in there. And unleash holy hell they did. At one point during recording they actually became frustrated by their studio takes sounding stiff compared to their live shows. So they ended up inviting local friends into the studio to recreate a live environment—playing through their set almost as they would onstage. That decision helped shape the record’s rawness that is certainly a part of its everlasting charm.
Musically, Rage Against the Machine carved out their own territory. It was a ferocious blend of styles that felt fresh then and still does now. Tom Morello’s guitar work is the nucleus of that approach, featuring not just heavy riffs but creative use of pedals (like the DigiTech Whammy), effects, toggle and pickup tricks, even using the guitar’s cable jack or switching pickups quickly to mimic DJ scratching samples. The dude was a massive innovator and changed guitar playing in a similar way to Jimi Hendrix. And then there’s Zack de la Rocha who matched that sonic inventiveness with lyrics that were overtly anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, revolutionary—challenging racism, corporate malfeasance, media control and injustice in a brutally straightforward manner. Nothing was ever left to chance or interpretation. And finally you had the rhythm section of Tim Commerford (bass) and Brad Wilk (drums) who fused funk grooves with rock and metal ferocity, giving Morello’s innovations a grounded backbone to paint on.
Historically, Rage Against the Machine reverberated far beyond the music world. Its iconic cover image—a photograph of Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức self-immolating in protest in 1963—was a visceral statement, immediately signaling the band’s solidarity with worldwide anti-oppression movements and their refusal to shy away from uncomfortable realities. The album opened doors for political discourse in mainstream rock and inspired young people to engage with topics like police brutality, systemic inequality, and dissent. Those were historically punk ideals but now you had a rap-rock metal band getting played on the radio leaning into those themes. That was a massive societal change quite frankly. And despite initial controversy and pushback (as you could imagine) the record blew up and has since earned classic status—ranked in various editions of Rolling Stone’s greatest albums, achieving multi-platinum status, and influencing countless bands that saw you didn’t need to compromise message to make powerful music.
I’ll never forget catching them live in 2007 at Coachella after they returned from a seven year hiatus. They played through their entire set at breakneck speed without addressing the crowd until the final song where they laid into George Bush (the US President at the time) for his role in the Iraq War before closing with “Killing In The Name”. It felt like a larger than life experience at 19 years old. Still feels that way.
Standout Songs: “Bombtrack”, “Killing In The Name”, “Take The Power Back”, “Bullet In The Head”, “Know Your Enemy”, “Wake Up”
