Rage Against The Machine - Evil Empire - 1996 Alt Hard Rock - Sealed 180 gm LP

Rage Against The Machine - Evil Empire

Style: Alternative Rock

Record New Sealed (listen to our previous copy)

Tracklist:

A1 People Of The Sun
A2 Bulls On Parade
A3 Vietnow
A4 Revolver
A5 Snakecharmer

B1 Tire Me
B2 Down Rodeo
B3 Without A Face
B4 Wind Below
B5 Roll Right
B6 Year Of Tha Boomerang

Credits:

Bass - Tim Bob
Co-producer - Rage Against The Machine
Drums - Brad Wilk
Guitar - Tom Morello
Lyrics By - Zack De La Rocha
Mixed By - Andy Wallace
Producer - Brendan O'Brien
Vocals - Zack De La Rocha
Written-By - Rage Against The Machine

Say whatever you will about Rage Against the Machine's political agenda; whether it was dead on the money or misguided is up to the listener, but what can be agreed on is "Evil Empire", Rage's long awaited follow up to their groundbreaking self titled debut album, is a great headbanging album that displays the band's talents at they're full extents.

Vocalist Zack De La Rocha can rap as furious as any hip hopper, and sounds better on here than he did on the self titled album. Guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commorford, and drummer Brad Wilk round out the rhythm section, all of which are fantastic musicians (although I liked Morello's solos better on the first album), and adrenaline charged songs like "People of the Sun", "Bulls on Parade", "Vietnow", and "Tire Me" are all great songs, maybe some of Rage's best, but "Evil Empire" is best listened to for the band itself, not any kind of political agenda.

Eventually Zack would leave the band in 2000, and the rest of the band would form Audioslave with former Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell; and Rage is sadly missed by their loyal following of fans. All in all, "Evil Empire" is a great album.

"People of the Sun" has a famous opening guitar riff and an unusually loud, beeping bass. Zach eventually launches into the first verse, which is a very political tirade about the Mexican people's revolution against the government. Tom makes some sound effects, letting Zach run wild-filling this song to the brim with angry rapping. This is more of a rap song than metal.
-Best lyric: "Yea, never forget that the whip snapped ya back/ya spine cracked for tobacco."

"Bulls on Parade" is one of Rage's most recognizable songs. It has groovy, "ner nah ner" sounding guitar noise, which periodically change to wah-wah guitar riffs, and more pissed off rapping (about people who run around shooting everybody else). The real highlight to me, here, is the guitar solo. What is that guy doing to his fret board?!
-Best lyric: "They don't gotta burn the books/they just remove 'em"

"Revolver" begins with a low, humming noise, before the guitars and the beat explode around forty seconds in. Zach is, at first, almost whispering, and I enjoy the almost galloping beat which leads into the chorus (which has some downshifting riffs and more of Zach's famous yells). I also enjoy the ten second, thumping bass drum solo following the second chorus.
-Best lyric: "Hey revolver/don't mothers make good fathers?"

"Snakecharmer" is very catchy. It has a lunging beat with stop-start riffs, at the end of which Zach yells "Yeah!" Plus, there's a small hand drum solo thrown in, as well.

"Tire Me" has another great, bending, up and down guitar solo,
and "Down Rodeo" has catchy, beeping guitar riffs and another audible, lowly rumbling bass. Zach does his usual thing in this song, but then a great, abrupt beat change kicks in and Zach starts yelling "Just a quiet, peaceful death!"
-Best lyric: "These people ain't seen a brown-skinned man since their grandparents bought one."

Checkout

Rage Against the Machine - People of The Sun -
don't you just love the BASS LINE?

Rage Against the Machine - Bulls On Parade -
Awesome song. Tom Morello has been one of the best guitarists for the past 15 years. Does Zack say "Quit it now" or "Come wit it now"? It sounds like "Quit it now." Either way a great song to crank up.

Rage Against The Machine - Down Rodeo

This song is so powerful. It's definitely one of my favorite Rage songs, for sure.

Rage Against the Machine - Year of tha Boomerang - Cal State

It's dark now in Dachau and I'm screaming from within