Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine

Exploring new frontiers of music and creating unique auditory experiences. Musical virtuosity coupled with intense emotion. These albums make use of music as a tool to convey a variety of different feelings to the listener. The following posts are reviews of albums which I believe make contact with the listener on an emotional level. That emotion may be tranquility, rage, sadness, etc. etc. Aside from being emotionally draining these albums feature some of the greatest musical and lyrical talent that contemporary music has to offer. Emotionally driven and musically compelling. If you happen to have some time on your hands you should try and listen to the albums, leave a couple comments, and lemme know what you think. And now I present...

Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine

Vietnamese monk Thích Quảng Đức, burning himself to death in 1963, is featured on the cover of the band’s self-titled album.

An urban call to arms. This entire album is a political message meant to induce intense feelings of uprising against the political system. With the “poetic” vocals of Zack de la Rocha and increasingly heavy guitar riffs by Tom Morello the album creates a gritty urban sound through an unusually successful blend of rap and heavy metal.

I find it very fitting that the two genres which bring this album together are rap and heavy metal. While most people seem to note their musical differences, they fail to see the number of similarities between the musical artists and their devoted fans. Rap and Heavy Metal have always and continue to be the music of the working man. Classical, pop, bubblegum rock, teen pop, and even jazz music are largely dominated by a privileged upper class society with the money to afford a musical education or the status to get your daughter her own TV show along with a musical career (see Miley Cyrus).

Who needs musical talent when you have a rich daddy?

Rap and Heavy Metal, however, are genres spawned from the lower class. The poor and neglected (50 Cent and Jimi Hendrix). The high school dropouts (Ozzy Osbourne and Eminem). Those unwanted by upper society (Marilyn Manson and Tupac Shakur). Both genres are often seen as distasteful and their musical contributions are usually disregarded. It seems only fitting that a musical group comprising of these two genres would be the one to tell all of political America and the upper class society to go fuck themselves.

The album is unrelentingly brutal from the first track to the last. The listener is being constantly cajoled to stand up and fight the political powers with full force. I have never felt such a strong urge to dick-slap former President Bush before. And Obama’s gonna be next if his so-called “change” doesn’t come around soon. Rocha’s screaming preacher raps coupled with Morello's heavy metal, and at some times funky, guitar riffs serve as the perfect tool for spreading their messages of political revolution. And that it most certainly does. The music instills a sense of rage into the listener who is forced to question the government he lives in. The end result is the releasing of your inner anarchist.

Rage Against the Machine

Unlike Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” I would not recommend listening to this album while dormant. The music itself is about taking action and thus I feel the album should be listened to in a similar fashion. Listening to the album while playing fast-paced video games or while working out seems appropriate. Simply plugging in your headphones while lying in bed will just degrade the musical experience. But despite how you listen to the album be prepared for an intense experience of uprising, rage, and revolution.

Tracks to look out for:

2. Killing in the Name – The band’s signature song featuring a heavy use of profanity and a series of now widely recognizable and distinct guitar riffs. The song itself prompts a revolution against racism in security agencies.

3. Take the Power Back – My personal favorite. A heavily funk influenced guitar drives Rocha’s call to arms.

7. Wake Up – Movie fans will immediately recognize this song as the closing to “The Matrix”. The song is another full fledged attack on racism within the US government. The listener is told to wake up and realize all is not as the government says it is.

This turned out to be a little longer then I expected.

Neo is so fucking awesome.