Fistful of steel (Rage Against The Machine) (LP 3591 - 3592)

Rage Against The Machine  Rage Against The Machine (CD, Epic Records, 1992) *****  

Rage Against The Machine  The Battle of Los Angeles (CD, Epic Records, 1999) ****  

Genre: They put rap, metal, and funk in a blender

Places I remember: Marbecks Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Wake Up (RATM)

Gear costume: Killing in the Name (RATM); Guerrilla Radio (Battle of Los Angeles)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: A real one off, like Hendrix, like Miles, like Coltrane, like the Stones, and The Beatles, Rage Against The Machine are a unique explosion of talent.

They are a visionary band and like that cover image - confronting, violent, political, revolutionary, graphic - RATM make sure you can't ignore them. Everything about them is extraordinary: Zach de la Rocha's committed delivery; Tom Morello's freakish guitar effects; Timmy C and Brad Wilk's singular styles on bass and drums respectively.

The debut album is one long HOWL - glorious in its intention and its execution (wake up). All killer!

Album number 3 - The Battle of Los Angeles is another coherent venting of emotions by the guys. This is a further fiery blast. Guerrilla Radio was a brilliant single that encapsulated the album's strengths.

Where do they all belong? I had their other two albums but decided to sell them and keep what to me are the two peaks in their catalogue.

What you are (Audioslave) (LP 482)

Audioslave Audioslave (CD, Sony Music, 2002) *** 

Genre: American pop/rock 

Places I remember: Gifted from the Hope family's CD collection

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: I Am The Highway; Bring Em Back Alive

Gear costume: Cochise; Exploder 

Active compensatory factors: I was dubious when this came out. 

I love Chris Cornell's vocals in Soundgarden, and I love the first and third Rage Against The Machine albums. I was worried the supergroup thing wouldn't work, and that I was too invested in the original bands, so I backed off buying this in 2002.

When Lindsay Hope very generously gave me his family's CD collection this was amongst the loot. 

Now, I'm not sure what to think really. Audioslave deserve to be heard on their own merits - but I find that difficult to do. My opinion sort of stands that Cornell is better in Soundgarden, and The Rage boys were better with Zack De La Rocha fronting them. 

However, there is no denying the power of the music here. It's one of those albums that grows better with repeat listens.

Where do they all belong? The band released two more albums before calling it quits. I don't own them. Maybe I should.

F---- you, I won’t do what you tell me

15 Rage Against The Machine, ‘Killing In The Name’; 16 Rammstein, ‘Asche Zu Asche’; 17 Avenged Sevenfold, ‘Almost Easy’.

I’m not insane, I’m not insane, I’m not insane! So says M Shadows, vocalist for Avenged Sevenfold. I’m not – and I love these three songs. Energy? Dialled up to 11! Attitude? Of yeah – see the post’s title. Repetition? Sure – repeat with me -now you do what they taught ya!! Loud? Eh? Each of these uses all these tried and true rockist features in new ways. In short, they rock like motorfingers!

Every once and a while I need to blow out the cobwebs with something obnoxious and there we go. The fact that I (either as teacher or authority figure or whatever) am often the target of the rage makes it all the more deliciously ironic. Isn’t it amazing, too, how quickly, what you thought was a threat to common good and decency is soon supplanted by something else.

The Sex Pistols and The Clash were evil incarnate to many in the late 1970s. Pretty tame now huh. The first Rage Against The Machine album was Mr Angry – not for nothing did The Matrix use the Rage’s Wake Up over their title credits, but Zach and his mates couldn’t sustain that for long and by album three they were raging against radio! Rammstein’s first few albums were dark and potentially alienating to my generation. But the fact they sang in their native German became less shocking with time. Compare their genuinely scarey Live in Berlin DVD with Volkerball and it’s obvious they’ve become more obviously cartoon-like with time. Now we have a new breed, as is the way.

I like listening to bands like Rammstein and The Lost Prophets for all of the usual reasons – they write catchy songs with power, youthful enthusiasm and total commitment, pounding rhythms and REALLY LOUD GUITARS. Isn’t that why we’ve always liked rebel music/ rock ‘n’ roll/ rock/ heavy metal – call it what you will?

Bring on the noise!