Rage Against The Machine

Also known as Rage or RATM Hard-rock/hip hop band formed in 1992. Members included Zach De La Rocha (vocals), Tom Morello (guitar), Tim Commerford (bass) and Brad Wilk (drums). Famous for being one of the few rap-rock bands that actually had talent. Combining De La Rocha's dynamic leftist vocals with the grinding sound of Commerford's bass, their 1st album, the self-titled "Rage Against The Machine" was a huge hit in the USA, and featured large amounts of airplay. The band was criticised by their decision to sign for EPIC records, because of their anger towards large corporations, however Tom Morello stated that without a major record label, they wouldn't be able to get their message across to as many people, which was really their target. The song "Wake Up" was featured on the credits to The Matrix, and the track "Killing In The Name" is on GTA: San Andreas. In 1996 the band released their second album, "Evil Empire", which debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top 200 in America. The album's title draws on a label, "evil empire" used by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and many Western conservatives in describing the former Soviet Union. The band released "Live and Rare", a mixture of live tracks and non-album covers, in 1998. In 1999 they released "The Battle of Los Angeles", once again reaching the top spot on the Billboard Chart. It featured the tracks "Guerilla Radio" which was on Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2, and "Calm Like A Bomb" was on the credits of The Matrix Reloaded. The album has a much heavier sound than what was featured on their 1992 and 1996 offerings. Many Rage fans dislikled this, as it was felt that the band was moving too far towards the Nu-metal genre. Zach De La Rocha also felt this, and after releasing "Renegades", a CD of covers of various artists, he left the band. He was also fuelled by the incident at the MTV awards in 2000, after which Tim Commerford spent a night in an LA jail. Many people believed that Rage split up over a row about money, but whatever the reason, at least they finished when the still had credability. "The Battle of Los Angeles" wasn't a poor album, but it was nowhere near matching their self-titled debut. Had they have made a bad album after "The Battle of Los Angeles" then they might not still be as popular as they are today. Morello, Commerford and Wilk joined with ex-Soundgarden singer, Chris Cornell, to form Audioslave. They are currently writing their third album after two very good releases. Their first album, "Audioslave", reached the #7 spot on the Billboard charts in 2002, whereas "Out Of Exile" debuted at #1 in 2005.