Rage Against The Machine

Rage Against The Machine biography

Rage Against the Machine is an American metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group 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 known for its "fiercely polemical music, which brews sloganeering leftist rants against corporate America, cultural imperialism, and government oppression into a Molotov cocktail of punk, hip hop, and thrash." They draw inspiration from early heavy metal instrumentation, as well as rap acts such as Afrika Bambaataa, Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys and Dutch crossover band Urban Dance Squad. As of 2010, they have sold over 16 million records worldwide.

In 1992, the band released its self-titled debut album, which became a commercial success, leading to a slot in the 1993 Lollapalooza festival. The band did not release a follow-up record until 1996, with Evil Empire. The band's third album, The Battle of Los Angeles, followed in 1999. During their initial nine-year run, they became one of the most popular and influential bands in music history, according to music journalist Colin Devenish. They were also ranked #33 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. The band had a large influence on the nu metal genre which emerged during the mid to late 1990s.

In 2000, the band released the cover album Renegades. The same year, Rage Against the Machine disbanded after De la Rocha unexpectedly quit the group. De la Rocha started a low-key solo career in One Day as a Lion; the rest of the band formed the rock supergroup Audioslave with Chris Cornell, then-former front-man of Soundgarden, which disbanded in 2007. That April, Rage Against the Machine performed together for the first time in seven years at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. They have continued to perform at many live venues and festivals around the world since 2007, although as of 2012 the band has yet to record any new material.

Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, all songs by the band were placed on the list of post-9/11 inappropriate titles distributed by Clear Channel.

History

1991-1994: Early years

In 1991, guitarist Tom Morello left his band, Lock Up, looking to start another band. He was in a club in LA where Zack de la Rocha was freestyle rapping. Morello was impressed, people said, by de la Rocha's lyric books, and asked him to be a rapper in a band. Morello drafted drummer Brad Wilk of Greta, who had previously auditioned for Lock Up, while de la Rocha convinced his childhood friend Tim Commerford to join as bassist. The newly christened Rage Against the Machine named themselves after a song de la Rocha had written for his former popular underground hardcore punk band, Inside Out (also to be the title of the unrecorded Inside Out full-length album). Kent McClard, with whom Inside Out were associated, had coined the phrase in a 1989 article in his zine No Answers.

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