The Battle of Los Angeles

Their last studio album, and despite some reviews I recall at the time, and the current perception that they never came close to their debut, this is a massive success. What this album did was, for me at least, was bring everything back to the infectious sound of the debut which had slipped into something less comfortable by the time of Evil Empire. I love that album, but it is strange, and far from catchy for much of the time; maybe it moved towards a stripped-down rap-orientated sound, with Tom Morello turning out scratchy, hostile riffs matching the viciousness of the vocals. But here: you really just need to listen to Testify, Guerilla Radio, Sleep Now in the Fire and various others to rediscover the huge stadium-powered rock approach that made the debut so iconic. And they've probably gone further in that direction than ever before. The punch some of these pack is staggering: the immense blues riff of Born of a Broken Man, for starters, is a real juggernaut.

And amongst these crowd-pleasers, there also sits, for my money, some of the best politicised hip-hoppery they ever produced. On Born as Ghosts, Morello’s guitar functions almost like a scratchboard and the whole thing has this simplistic conversational charisma. But it’s on unlikely album high-point, Maria where everything comes together. Ringing, high-pitched lead guitar squawks give it a weird, swelteringly oppressive feel, mirroring the message of the song. There is no chorus, just a major guitar riff that clearly precedes what the rhythm section would be doing in Audioslave a couple of years later. As for the lyrics- if you don’t like Rage Against the Machine’s lyrics then ultimately you don’t really like Rage Against the Machine. On Maria they produced their best work (for me, at least), both politically and poetically, in this tribute to Latina immigrant labour in the USA.

For much of this it seems like Morello’s inimitable squealing and noise-making has its lid kept on. For some, this may be a plus, but then just like with the lyrics, if you don’t like the oddball collection of sounds he produces, you may be listening to the wrong band. (Am I the only person that would list Know Your Enemy as one of rock music’s coolest guitar solos?). It adds to the whole mentality of the band: a little outside of the rules, into experimental rhythmic ideas ahead of melody, and influenced by the disjointed collage approach of bands like Public Enemy. They are a little elbowed out here by the stadium riffs at which they seem fundamentally incompatible. Fortunately we get the curiosity that is Ashes in the Fall- seemingly a showcase for him doing whatever he likes, but which culminates in the chilling “point” of the song: Ain’t it funny how the factory doors close/Round the time that the school doors close/Round the time that the doors of the jail cells open up and great you like the reaper.

Rage Against the Machine is political radicalism distilled, and metaphysically synthesised into music. Yes, unquestioning Che-T-Shirt-buying kids might miss the point of it, but certainly less than those people that just listen to it for the riffs or the rhythms or whatever. Like The Clash or The Dead Kennedys, it is impossible to listen to them without re-assessing who you are and what you do. For some of us they are as close as it gets to a genuinely life-changing band.