Rage Against The Machine
The Battle of Los Angeles
The Band: Zack De La Rocha- vocals
Tom Morello- guitar
Tim Commerford- bass
Brad Wilk- Drums
Rage Against The Machine. My favourite band from the 1990’s, hands down. They’re definitely one of the most unique bands I’ve ever heard of. The main reason for this is the contrast between the instrumentals and the vocals. The instrumentals while difficult to describe are closest to alternative rock genre. The vocals however, are rapped. This creates a very unique atmosphere for RATM’s songs. Another one of the bands key features is Tom Morello’s soloing. It’s incredibly unique. I won’t say anymore about it right now, but I will talk much more about it later.
Rage Against The Machine have been one of my favourite bands for quite some time now. As I already mentioned one of the reasons I like them is the unique atmosphere of their music, but another reason is their attitude. They’re one of few bands who can openly state how much they hate the government without seeming really cheesy or fake. As I’m sure most of you just clued into I was referring to the piles and piles of bands nowa days that are constantly stating how much the hate George Bush and not really stating why just sort of doing it to make people like them. Anyways, to avoid extreme backlash in the comments I’ll stop talking about that now. Just to some up the paragraph Zack sings about what he feels and does give a hoot what people think about it. I know this isn’t necessarily a unique attribute. Lots of other sings do the same thing, but I like that about the band none the less.
Now to dissect the instrumentals one at a time. As per usual I’ll start with the guitar. Which was simply perfect. The rhythm guitar was stupendous. There was some power-chorded riffs, but there were also plenty of fantastic funky riffs. There were also lots of nice pitched bends and very short solo-y riffs under verses and choruses to spice things up a bit. I rather enjoyed the tone of Morello’s amp. Nice distortion but not so distorted that the notes blended together. Now onto the solos. Oh my, the solos. Most of the were simply breath taking. They were all a good length. Not too long not too short. Tom Morello is simply a genius when it comes to writing unique sounding solos. I’ve heard that one of the ways he gets his unique sound is by using an allan key as a pick. I’m not sure if this is true or not but I know I heard it somewhere. Tom also uses a wide array of FX to bring his solos together. Wah pedals, talk pedals etc.
Onto the bass. Which was outstanding by the way. Involved in almost every track at one point or another. The bass helped contribute to this albums high level of funkiness. The riffs were often very well written. They’re somewhat difficult to describe really. Most of them involve some nice hammer ons and pull offs. This gives them sort of a solo-y feel, although there were no actually bass solos. The bass also did a commendable job of keeping good rhythm, throughout. It really managed to hold the tracks together. All in all I was very pleased with the bass in this album because it did it’s job and gave us a little something extra
Now for the drums. The drums for this album were adequate. Nothing too special. A lot of simple beats with the occasional fill here and there. It would’ve been nice to see them more involved with the album, but I suppose they didn’t take anything away from it either. I just would’ve liked to see some more intense beats here and there. The drums seemed somewhat inferior because the rest of the instrumentals were just so great. They still weren’t bad, though. Brad did manage to keep a steady beat throughout. Which usually isn’t too hard to do, but it might’ve been somewhat difficult for him with Tom’s crazy solos and Zack’s rapid, violent vocals. It would be indeed, very hard to focus with all that going on
Pros: Vocals
Instrumentally very sound
Nice overall atmosphere
Cons: Drums could’ve done a little more
Overall Rating: 4.5/5
I would encourage all of you out there to check this out. It’s got a little something for you no matter what genre you’re into. With the exception of a couple of genres, like country. I strongly recommend this for any guitarists out there. Not only are the solos fun to learn but pretty much every riff in every song is fun to play. Truly wonderful stuff. Until next time keep your stick on the ice.
Metallicaman
