SilentScream213 Just like their previous material, this album loses me in how repetitive and simple it is. Testify opens the album with a perfect example of what you can expect here. A groovy, funky riff kicks off the song well, the ever-impressive bass offering a great backbone. After repeating for a bit, the music all dies down to allow Zack to spit some venom. Then the riff comes back, then it disappears again… The whole time, the drums are essentially playing the same simple beat. By the end of the song, what seemed like a strong riff turns into “wow, that was the only riff on the song and I’m just about tired of it now.”

And then the next track does just about the same thing. Of course, the second track also offers a terrible… kazoo section? There are some surprises on the album, but usually they aren’t… great. The album does have a decent amount of variety between tracks, it’s more so that every track relies on one or two ideas and just repeats them over and over. Sleep Now in the Fire is definitely one of their best songs though.

What IS consistently great, is the basswork. Eternally funky, doing juicier leads than the guitars, the bass has so much power here. Any fans of great lead basswork can appreciate this. Unfortunately it doesn’t save the album from being rather boring, thanks to the other members playing quite simple, repetitive, and unevocative music. Vocal deliverance is strong, but lyrics range from great to poor, and just like the folly of the instrumentation, suffer from being far too repetitive.

SilentScream213 Another one of those “did it first” albums that in my opinion doesn’t live up to the hype its legacy implies. Aside from Anthrax’s “I’m the Man” and a couple Faith No More songs (if we’re being generous), there really wasn’t much Rap Metal prior to RATM, and certainly not a full album of it. The band certainly took a unique approach and recreated Hip-Hop using entirely real Rock instrumentation and original music, even using some guitar effects to mimic sound effects you might hear in traditional Hip Hop. It’s innovative, but a lot of those “guitar sound effects” end up sounding really annoying, like the siren whine on “Fistful of Steel” or the bass drops on “Township Rebellion.”

Zack sounds angry, and his delivery is good, but man some of the lyrics are weak. Oftentimes he’ll repeat a phrase over and over, and the chorus to the first song gives you a sense of that, where he just says “burn, burn, yes you’re gonna burn” a whopping 8 times. The guitars and the drums suffer the same problem. Sometimes Tom comes up with a decent riff, but after hearing it repeated 16 times over a very boring, monotonous drumbeat, I’m sick of it. The riffs don’t match Zack’s mood, either; they’re far more groovy than angry, and the slow, simple drumming gives no sense of urgency or energy to what /should/ be an angry, energetic album. The music sounds like something to chill out to, not exactly what you want for a revolution. The songs are also way longer than necessary, none under 4 minutes and repeating the same simple ideas over and over again. They’d be much better in short chunks, but they wear themselves out before they’re over.

One huge plus to this album is the bass. Timmy does a phenomenal job with his rhythmic groove, doing way more than backing the band and adding super spicy melodies to the mix. This is the one instrument I didn’t find repetitive at all; he’s definitely got a “lead bassist” thing going on.

Overall, not a bad album at all, but one of the most overrated in my opinion. Rap Metal is a genre that might not have too much room to succeed, but I’d love to see later bands take it in a different direction.

siLLy puPPy Although rapping to metal music had started as a novelty as far back as 1984 with an all but forgotten dude named the Lone Rager, the possibilities really seemed to take a life of their own when Anthrax shocked the world with their unique thrash metal / hip hop hybrid song “I’m The Man” but the world pretty much wrote it all off as a joke and wasn’t quite ready for the musical collaborative efforts of a perceived black’s only style of music with the predominant whiteness of metal music. Part of that problem was the fact rap music hadn’t gone mainstream yet and it wasn’t until RUN-DMC released its cover of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” which featured both Steven Tyler and Joe Perry that the world finally realized that rap music was a major force in the world of music. While still considered somewhat of a novelty once Fatih No More hit the top 10 on the Billboard chart with its 1989 rap metal hit “Epic,” it seemed that it was destiny that this cross-pollination was here to stay.

While rappers like Ice-T and funk rockers like the Red Hot Chili Peppers were becoming heavier, it wasn’t until the LA based RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE released its self-titled debut in 1992 that the world of rap metal really became an international phenomenon. While the antecedents of this hybridization had hinted at the possibilities, this band that consisted of Zack de la Rocha (vocals), Timmy Commerford (known as Timmy C on bass), Tom Morello (guitar) and Brad Wilk (drums, percussion) really set the world on fire much like the self-immolating Thích Quảng Đức who was the Bhuddist monk who famously went down in history for that famous photo of protesting the Vietnamese war by sacrificing his own life. What a perfect album cover for a band that focused on political revolution and absolutely nobody has done the rap metal thing better than RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE did on its first album.

Part of what makes this album so ridiculously awesome is that all four members were extremely dexterous in how they hybridized hip hop and heavy metal namely by emphasizing the strengths of both and not forcing rap lyrics into some incongruous style of metal music. With the emphasis on the lyrical content, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE benefited by Zack de la Rocha’s superb poetic prose that he delivered with a vocal precision of the most gifted of rappers along with the extreme vocal angst of what metal offers. Graced with a strong bass funk driven groove section with heavy distorted guitar riffs and crushing percussive drive, the band was also lifted by Tom Morello’s uncanny ability to interpret DJ oriented music and channel it through his guitar offering some of the most unique soloing techniques in all of metal history, a style as distinct and unique as this band proved itself to be.

The other factor that makes this debut so utterly brilliant is that each of the 10 tracks has its own developed personality with a diverse array of melodic grooves that provided the perfect backdrop for De la Rocha’s hot on the mic passion and hunger for a more just world. While the grooves provide the basic funkified groove, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE excelled at creative breakdowns, unexpected interludes and a firm sense of command for diverse dynamics. Add to that Morello was uncanny in how he could exploit the guitar to create sounds hitherto unthinkable. He truly had a gift of interpreting guitar playing in a way that absolutely nobody before had considered and although new ideas may be interesting they don’t always result in a satisfying experience. Not the case with RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE despite the fact these youngsters had only begun their career. This album sounds like a group fo seasoned professional as far as the musicianship is concerned only with the fiery punk fueled passion of youthful discontent.

This one was really love at first listen and even now after i pull it out every so often i’m reminded at how intense and absolutely perfect this album is. While it’s rare for a young band to totally come out with a completely new genre of music, it’s even rarer when that first release was already taken it to its logical conclusion. Yeah, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE is blamed for the entire nu metal scene (by the haters) that followed and for wankers like Limp Bizkitt to follow but one can’t condemn any band for inspiring inferior imitators after all. IMHO, this debut album remains the best example of rap metal to have ever existed and it seems unlikely it will ever be improved upon. A true gem of hip hop, funk, metal and political fervor as scorching hot as the album cover suggests. An ALL TIME CLASSIC!

aglasshouse From what I've seen and heard, rap metal may not be the most popular genre among metalheads. This could be due to the constantly painful thought of LIMP BIZKIT. Yet, there is a lighter side to the rap metal spectrum, and leading the helm was and still is RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE.

I find it funny sometimes when an artist's debut is their most famous album. It just makes me laugh: an artists first release and first actual studio release to the masses just so happens to be more popular than all of their releases afterwards. Of course I'm not saying that this album is bad because/even though it is famous. Let me explain why I like it.

Even though rap does front the music, there is no doubt that the other instruments are far behind. Speaking of the instruments, the guitars as well as the drums retain a constant and heavy funky metal beat that grows depending on where the song goes or is going. The vocals usually dictate where the song is going to go, ranging from quieter BEASTIE BOYS-style rapping onto similarly BB yelling vocals. It certainly was the general rapping sound back in the 90's.

Some highlights of mine include 'Fistful of Steel', 'Bombtrack', 'Killing in the Name', and 'Township Rebellion'.

So overall, I would suggest any alt/funk/rap metal fans to check this out, it's a definite must.

Go give it a listen.

floflo79 I'm not a fan of alternative metal but I like Rage Against The Machine and love the eponymous album. The drum work and the bass lines are just groovy as hell, the rap vocals are pretty good, and the Tom Morello's guitar playing is very enjoyable. The main riff of Killing In The Name is just killing, tracks like Freedom, Township Rebellion and of course Know Your Enemy are just awesome. I'm just not a fan of the rap side that brings the 5 starts to four and a half. But I think that the compositions are just great. A metal masterpiece.