Following their three-year hiatus, Rage Against The Machine is back with The Battle Of Los Angeles. The first question I got from a friend of mine was, “Are they still angry?” Well, frontman Zack De La Rocha seems to be.
We listened to a few songs together, since he believes himself to be a RATM connoisseur. We’d both hoped they would add something new, and while they haven’t added anything new to the mix, they do have a new agenda. There is something about RATM, and you either like what they do or you don’t. As in both of RATM’s previous releases, Zack finds a verse and sticks with it. He pokes and prods the words over and over. Don’t get me wrong, I think Zack has one of the most powerful voices for what it is he does, and I do enjoy hearing it, but not saying the same thing twenty times in a row.
“Guerilla Radio” finds Morello squeezing bizarre sounds out of his guitar. I think I’d rather listen to that than the repetition of the chorus. “Calm Like A Bomb” sounds curiously similar to a previous RATM release. “Mic Check” again finds Morello pushing the limits of his guitar and pedals. The foggy-electro-wah is more disturbing, and again more captivating, than the vocals.
“Sleep Now In The Fire” starts out sounding like it could be Aerosmith on the other side of the amps until Zack comes in with his marching hip-hop-rock vocals and the two-line chorus that’s nothing but repeating the song title. The charming guitar in “Born Of A Broken Man” is a complete rip-off of Stone Temple Pilots’ “Army Ants”. It fits, but STP did it with better dynamics. The guitar twists, turns, and talks to you as “Born As Ghosts” delivers on every angle. Zack finally sounds human and takes his words to a level that you don’t need to tune out. “Voice Of The Voiceless” sports one of the sickest guitar sounds you’ll hear. Morello is ahead of his time. Can anyone match his guitar trickery?
Rage Against The Machine have tried hard to be the metal answer to Public Enemy, but have yet to produce anything close to the classic It Takes A Nation Of Millions. And this album isn’t going to bring them any closer. Like Chuck D., Zack always has a mission, but Zack is re-paving the same road he traveled two albums before. Only Morello is taking it to another level. Take “New Millennium Homes”, what in the hell is he doing to that guitar to get those sounds? And check out the intro to “Ashes In The Fall”. Morello is the man; Zack preaches for progress, but he seems to be stuck in the mud. “Ashes In The Fall” says it best: “this is the new sound/ just like the old sound”. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
+ rae gun
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