Album Essentials: Rage Against The Machine (1992)

By Dave Swanson - Summit FM Contributor

Since Woody Guthrie first declared of his guitar, "this machine kills fascists," singers and songwriters have felt motivated to lend their voice to protest. From those like Guthrie and Pete Seeger, to Bob Dylan and the great Phil Ochs, to Jefferson Airplane, the MC5, the Clash, Jello Biafra, Bruce Springsteen, Public Enemy, and on and on, there have always been those who felt the calling to bring up issues of concern. Some succeeded, some failed, but one could never call those troubadours as taking part in a fashion statement. They meant it…maaaan!

In 1992, a new gang of upstarts wanted to take on the world by merging metal, rap, punk and funk into their own Molotov mission statement. They called themselves Rage Against The Machine. While Rage fit in perfectly with the new 'alternative' sensibility of the era, joining in on the Lollapalooza games along the way while taking part in various protests they believed in. They stood apart from other heavies of the era with their own sound and approach, a sound that would, sadly, spawn a parade of bonehead macho bands, miles away from Rage's stance. But that's another story.

Their self-titled debut album was issued in November of 1992 and quickly turned heads their way. The album, released by Columbia Records, was stocked full of songs that connected with many youth at the time. The searing guitars of Tom Morello, the confrontational vocals of Zach de la Rocha, the dynamic rythym section of bassist Tim Commerford, and drummer Brad Wilk was like a powder keg. De La Rocha's onstage antics were often life a stick of dynamite going off.

They wrote and sang of contempt for government, laws, rules, police brutality, all with anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist stance. Well, anti-capitalist, not including major record labels apparently, and those tattoo's, tongue pierced Lolla P kids ate it up! The LP sleeve featured the legendary Vietnam War photograph of Vietnamese monk Thích Quảng Đức performing self-immolation. This was not a band for the timid.

'Killing In The Name,' the first single from the LP would prove to be their initial calling card. As Morello told Spin Magazine, "after the crowd response early on, our manager told me, you guys may write better songs, more sophisticated songs, you may make many records that are critically acclaimed, but I have a feeling that this is a song that people are going to remember you guys for 20 years from now." 'Bullet In The Head,' 'Bombtrack,' and 'Freedom' would follow as singles and videos.

Morello somewhat summed up his band this way to NME on the band's 20th anniversary in 2012, "there has never been a more popular band with politics as radical as Rage Against The Machine," he declared. "We planted a flag on the political rock Mount Everest. There are bands that are political who have sold more records but they’re not as radical. There are bands who are more radical – well, maybe – than Rage Against The Machine but they haven’t come near to the same global popularity. That’s something we can be very proud of."

Though the album only made it to #45 on Billboard, it went on to multi-platinum status, and is considered a landmark of that era.