Having successfully fused music and politics from their start, inspiring both moshing and young minds in the process, Rage Against the Machine emerge in peak form with merely their third album in seven years. Guitarist Tom Morello is one of the most distinctive and innovative players of his era, and his foil, vocalist / lyricist Zack De La Rocha, is as unrelenting and inspiring as ever onThe Battle of Los Angeles. Rage, whose past antics include performing naked with duct tape over their mouths to protest censorship, releasedBattleon Election Day in the US, but the politics of the group can be separated from the sounds. Indeed, the 45 minutes of mayhem heard here can be enjoyed solely as rousing aggro hip-hop rock. There’s more variety found onBattlethan on its predecessors, however.Sleep Now In The Fireis one of their most straight-ahead rock tunes, while the trippy guitar onCalm Like A Bombis out there even for the adventurous Morello andBorn a Broken Manserves up lovely musical interludes.

Limited 180 gram vinyl LP pressing. The Battle of Los Angeles is the third studio album by rock band Rage Against the Machine, released on November 2, 1999 by Epic Records. The album was nominated at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album. “Voice of the Voiceless”, a song referring to Mumia Abu Jamal, references a letter written by Mao Zedong, called “A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire.” Another Rage-Mumia-Mao connection can be seen in Mumia’s paraphrased words from Mao’s “power grows out of the barrel of a gun” when Mumia gave his court testimony: “It is America who has seized political power from the Indian [Native American] race, not by God, not by Christianity, not by goodness, but by the barrel of a gun.” Formed in 1991, Rage Against The Machine consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello, and drummer Brad Wilk. Rage Against the Machine is well known for the members’ revolutionary political views, which are expressed in many of the band’s songs.