When Rage Against the Machine
first exploded onto the music scene back in the mid nineties,
they were like a short sharp kick in the head. With debut
single "Killing in the Name", they stood out a mile
from the rest of the grunge landscape, with their politically
charged lyrics, no-nonsense metal riffs and rock-rap stylings.
In the current musical climate, with the likes of Limp Bizkit
ruling the airwaves with their dumb - the world hates me and
no-one understands me - outlook, it seems about time for Rage
to reclaim the shouty rock-rap throne.
Following the recent announcement that vocalist Zack De La
Rocha is to quit the band, they release their latest album,
Renegades, an album of cover versions of musical renegades
that have influenced them. The liner notes for the album contains
the usual bit about how the album was made using only Guitar,
Bass, Drums and Vocals, which seem a bit odd on an album singing
the praises of musical pioneers such as EPMD and Afrika Bambaataa.
First track, "Microphone Fiend", starts off with
typical wah wah drenched riffs and shouty rap vocals, and
with its E-F-F-E-C-T chanted chorus, rivals any of their previous
material for moshpit mayhem.
When you hear the opening riff to, "Kick Out the Jams",
you know its going to be something special, a classic MC5
song updated superbly with a great shout along chorus. "Renegades
Of Funk" follows, with Tom Morello breaking out his trademark
unusual guitar sounds to great effect.
The real surprise of the album comes with the cover of Devo's,
"Beautiful World", Its rage Against The Machine
doing an acoustic ballad with Zack singing and everything.
You keep waiting for the huge metal riffs to kick in and the
shouting to start, but with Zack singing "it's a beautiful
world" spitting the words out all full of sarcasm and
contempt, its a strange experience. The album soon returns
to the rock-rap template for the rest of the album, their
cover of Minor Threats, "In my Eyes" being a particular
highlight and taking shouting to a new level.
Cover's of Springsteen's, "The Ghost Of Tom Joad"
and Dylan's "Maggies Farm" are also worth hearing
with Rage taking the songs, adding their own ingredients and
spitting them back as their own.
The only weak track on the album is their version of the Rolling
Stones "Street Fighting Man", with electro sounding
drum beats and over produced vocals it ends up sounding like
a lame version of the Prodigy.
All in all another great album from Rage Against The Machine,
and if they do split after the departure of Zack, this will
be a fitting swansong.
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