thevoid99's Full Review: Evil Empire by Rage Against The Machine
When Rage Against the Machine emerged in 1992 with their self-titled debut, they helped brought in a new form of metal music to the forefront of alternative rock. With other bands like Tool and Helmet, Rage was part of the alt-metal sub genre as they fused metal with other genres of music. Rage was praised for its fusion of metal, punk, and hip-hop due to the rapping, political lyrics of singer Zach De La Roca and the scratchy, textured guitar work of Tom Morello. In 1993, Rage toured with Tool as part of the Lollapalooza festival just as their debut was racing up the charts thanks to the songs “Freedom” and “Killing In The Name”. After their tour, Rage continued to be active politically and socially as they were involve for the cases of accused Black Panther member Mumia-Abu Jamal and Native American activist Leonard Peltier. Around that same time, they were working on a second album entitled “Evil Empire”.
“Evil Empire” is sonic-induced filled with ear-splitting production from Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam & Stone Temple Pilots) that helps bring more power to Rage’s rap-metal sound. In comparison to the debut, “Evil Empire” is stronger in some cases but lacks the freshness of the debut and the melodic sensibility from that record doesn’t appear much on “Evil Empire”. Instead, the album is less accessible in its sound and message. Musically, Morello, bassist Tim Commerford aka Tim Bob, and drummer Brad Wilk are much stronger in their sound and performance. De La Roca meanwhile is more ferocious in his vocals and lyrics as he talks about social injustice, the government, and all sorts of political subjects. Though not as groundbreaking as the debut, “Evil Empire” is a successful and powerful sophomore effort from Rage Against the Machine.
The album’s opening track and second single is for Mexican, Zapitistas movement song “People Of The Sun” as it opens with scratchy, wailing guitar riffs from Tom Morello that is followed by break-beating rhythms from Brad Wilk’s drums and Tim Bob’s melodic bass lines as they follow Zach De La Roca’s mid-tempo paced rapping and freestyle as he sings about the oppression of Mexicans that is followed by the chorus of “It’s comin’ back around again/This is for the people of the sun”. Bob’s melodic bass lines follow along with Wilk’s wide array of percussions and Morello’s scratchy, droning guitar riffs as De La Roca raps, “Speaker, on tha one Maya, Mexica/That vulture came ta try an steal ya but now/You found a gun…you’re history” as it leads to the rocking chorus.
The album’s first single is for the Zeppelin-pounding of “Bulls On Parade” with its heavy, mid-tempo rhythms of drums and bass followed by Morello’s driving guitar as it is followed by his waa-waa guitar scratches. The song returns to its Zeppelin-pounding as De La Roca then raps, “This microphone explodes, shattering the mold/Ya either drop tha hits like de la o or get tha f*ck off tha commode/Wit tha sure shot, sure ta make tha bodies drop” as it follows the chorus of “We rally round the family, with a pocket of shoes”. The song’s anti-corporate/anti-gun message and Zep-heavy tone makes this song a classic song for Rage that is followed by a turntable-like scratching guitar solo from Morello that is followed by that heavy momentum of pounding rhythms and guitars as De La Roca screams “Bulls on parade”. “Vietnow” starts off with droning scratches from Morello as it is followed by Wilk’s upbeat, pulsating break-beat as De La Roca raps about turning off the radio with more incendiary lyrics. It’s pretty unclear what De La Roca is trying to say but his tone is very angry and it makes up for the clumsiness surrounding the lyrics, even as Morello shines with a driving guitar track with the Zep-heavy rhythm section of Wilk and Commerford.
“Revolver” starts off with squealing, scratchy solos from Morello as the song starts to get into a mid-tempo, hard-rocking sound with driving guitars and rhythms. The song starts off soft with De La Roca talking about a fighter who’s a champ and owns everything. Then the song builds up momentum as De La Roca raps and screams, “Hey revolver, don’t mother make good fathers? Revolver” as the song just goes into hard-rocking overdrive. The song goes back and forth into soft, brooding tones and to heavier textures with pounding drums and Morello’s squealing guitar solo. “Snakecharmer” is a more, upbeat and pulsating track with Wilk’s menacing beats, Morello’s driving guitar, Bob’s heavy bass lines, and De La Roca’s incendiary vocals and lyrics of greed and deception as he sings, “Your friendship is a fog/That disappears when the wind redirects” as it is followed by Morello’s squealing guitar solo. De La Roca then screams “Interested in you”.
“Tire Me” is the album’s fastest song with its driving, menacing rhythms and guitar riffs from Tom Morello and Bob’s droning bass lines. The song then goes into overdrive with Wilk’s pulsating beats and Morello’s guitar as De La Roca raps at a high intensity that is hard to keep up as he sings lyrics about Laos, history, and later, in the song, Jackie O. The song’s best moment is in its performance from Wilk’s pulsating snare fills and Morello’s squealing, scratchy guitar solo that is filled with brilliance in each note he performs. “Down Rodeo” starts off with a wailing, fast-paced rhythm of guitars and drums as it slows down a bit to a more mid-tempo based tone. Tim Bob dominates the song with a pounding bass slap to Wilk’s crashing beats and cymbal crashes to De La Roca’s anti-corporate rhymes. The song even has a Zep-like drive with its rhythm and guitar that makes Rage more unique than most rap-metal bands that came out after them, a lot of that is due to Morello’s brilliance on guitar as he belts out, squealing, melodic riffs.
“Without A Face” is followed by break-beating, bopping beats from Wilk, Bob’s melodic bass lines, and vibrato, droning guitar riffs from Morello as De La Roca raps about the life of his ancestors and the oppression they face. The song’s momentum builds up into a heavier, grinding track with wailing guitars and crashing rhythms as De La Roca compared his oppression to what happened with the Holocaust in World War II. The song also includes Morello, being the brilliant guitar player that he is grinding and sliding his way with his groundbreaking guitar work. “Wind Below” is by far, the heaviest song on the album with its wailing, scratchy guitar riffs from Morello and Zep-pounding rhythm section from Wilk and Bob. The song then quiets down a bit with Morello’s squealing guitar track as De La Roca raps about the rebellion surrounding against the Mexican government in its radical tone as it follows with the crashing chorus of “We in wit the wind below”. Morello later delivers an awesome guitar solo that squeals in its melody and performance as it scratches through the song.
“Roll Right” comes in with Morello’s driving guitar riffs and squealing mic feedbacks with Bob’s droning bass lines and Wilk’s smooth, pulsating drum fills. De La Roca then raps anti-capitalist lyrics as the song then goes into a heavy, pounding track with De La Roca screaming, “Roll right, roll call”. Morello brings in some scratchy, guitar reverbs as Wilk brings in some accompanying percussions to the track as the song returns to its heavy chorus as Morello slithers through with his reverb, vibrato guitar riffs that just oozes with seduction in its note and performance. “Year Of Tha Boomerang” is the album’s closer as it opens with Morello’s screeching guitar riffs as the song goes into a throbbing, mid-tempo rhythm of break-beats and Bob’s slap bass performance. De La Roca raps more about the oppression of the world and stops when Morello brings a brief, melodic guitar track. De La Roca then raps in the chorus of “In the year of tha boomerang/I got no property but yo, I’m a piece of it” as Morello, quietly brings a squealing guitar solo. The song’s rhythm then goes into heavy overdrive and back and forth into mid-tempo and heavy with brief touches of Morello’s melodic guitar track.
“Evil Empire” upon its release did gain excellent reviews and debuted at # 1 in the album charts in its April 1996 release. The album did gain two hit singles with “People Of The Sun” and “Bulls On Parade” as Rage became a popular touring act, even touring with the Wu-Tang Clan in 1997 for a brief period. Unfortunately despite their success, the overwhelming tension between the band members was increasing that made the “Evil Empire” sessions to go for so long. In 1999, the band released “The Battle of Los Angeles” to excellent reviews, as rap-metal became the new thing. Despite excellent sales and acclaim, Rage was falling apart in 2000 and eventually; Zach De La Roca quit to form a solo career while the rest of the members formed Audioslave with Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell in 2001.
While not as groundbreaking as their self-titled debut or as focused, “Evil Empire” is still a fine sophomore effort from Rage Against the Machine. Though De La Roca’s lyrics at times are clumsy and incoherent, his vocals are still filled with passion as he is accompanied by the powerhouse rhythm section of Brad Wilk and Tim Commerford and guitarist Tom Morello, who next to My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields, is the best guitarist of the 1990s. Fans who loved the debut will find a lot of stellar moments in “Evil Empire” while the album does serve as a good starting point although its best to pick up the debut first. For an album that is heavy in sound and attitude, “Evil Empire” is a good place to start.
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