The Battle of Los Angeles

Rage Against The Machine | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 2, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Epic
• ASIN: B00002MZ2C
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MiniDisc  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (621 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,850 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #16 in Music > Rock > Rap Rock
  • #38 in Music > Hard Rock & Metal > Alternative Metal

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Having successfully fused music and politics from their start, inspiring both moshing and young minds in the process, Rage Against the Machine emerges 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 on The Battle of Los Angeles. Rage, whose past antics include performing naked with duct tape over their mouths to protest censorship, released Battle on Election Day, 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 on Battle than on its predecessors, however. "Sleep Now in the Fire" is one of their most straight-ahead rock tunes. The trippy guitar on "Calm Like a Bomb" is out there even for the adventurous Morello. And "Born a Broken Man" serves up lovely musical interludes. Overall, the more finely honed Rage heard on Battle may not inspire a generation of young revolutionaries, but they still stir up more mutinous spirit than the rest of the current rock pack. --Katherine Turman

Product Description

remastered reissue of 1999 albumpackaged in a digipak.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 48 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Their Best Yet March 25, 2000

By anne reamsnyder

Format:Audio CD

Rage Against The Machine, in only three albums, has achieved the balance they've needed. Previously, their heavy messages and their particularly heavy music have clashed, with one drowning out the other in about half of their songs.

But "Battle" changes that. The music has much more variety than previous albums. "Calm Like a Bomb" has some ridiculous guitar work, as does "Voice of the Voiceless," a call of the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal. "Sleep Now In The Fire," the current single, is an almost straight-ahead rock tune, and pretty darn catchy.

Tom Morello is in peak form on "Battle," creating some insane sounds out of his guitars, such as the 'guitarmonica' solo on "Guerilla Radio" or some Tom-knows-what feedback on "Mic Check." Lyricist Zach De La Rocha screams along with his music with feeling not found too often. Their bassist, under the mocking psuedonym "Y.tim.K" shows off his talent quite often, as does drummer Brad Wilk.

Once again, RATM can make the claim that "All sounds [are] made by guitar, bass, drums, and vocals" only. Listen through this album and gasp at that achievement; it doesn't sound like it came easily. Overall this album is a worthy addition to any Rage fan's collection, and hopefully the thought-provoking messages and powerful music will draw in many new fans for such a deserving band.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Puts nearly every other rap/rock band to shame April 11, 2000

By Forest Law

Format:Audio CD

Rage Against The Machine may not be the most prolific band on the planet (three albums over the course of a decade) but the finished product always makes it worth the wait. On "The Battle Of Los Angeles", RATM's sound becomes refined and more eclectic - some songs like "Mic Check" and "Ashes Of The Fall" cover new territory for the band. It's true that they have lost some of the aggression of their other two albums, but they compensate with sonic variety and more insightful lyrics, and songs like "Born As Ghosts" and "Testify" wouldn't sound out of place on their first album. What puts RATM way ahead of many of their peers is that actually have a message and aren't merely "doing it for the nookie". Zack is very passionate about the Zapatista rebels and Mumia Abu-Jamal getting a fair trial (and freedom) and the lyrics on BOLA are the best he's written to date. My favorite songs on the album would have to be "Guerrilla Radio", "Calm Like A Bomb", "Born Of A Broken Man", and "Testify", though all of them are awesome. Highly recommended to fans of the rap/rock sound that are looking for something more lyric-intensive.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth owning for one song, but the rest are very good too March 28, 2006

By Matt Lynch

Format:Audio CD

I'll keep this short and sweet since, while I think this album was excellent, I don't view "The Battle of Los Angeles" to be the band's finest work. I think that's a toss-up between their debut and the nigh-perfect "Evil Empire." This band told it like it was, is, and will likely, unfortunately, continue to be each and every time they released an album.

However, this one digs into the band's favorite topics a little deeper and what it uncovers is hideous and depressing. From songs ranging about the destitution-to-desperation of the poor in Mexico ("Maria") to the us-against-them nature of abandoned/forgotten ethic groups/gangs in the inner city ("Born As Ghosts") to a song about one of their biggest causes, the freedom of (perhaps wrongly) convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and other so-called criminals that may be in the same boat ("Voice of the Voiceless"), this album doesn't relent until the CD ends.

However, the one track that has always stuck out in my mind as the glimpse behind the curtain to which all others should be compared is the masterful "Ashes in the Fall," perhaps the band's most gut-wrenching, soul-searing track in its entire career.

The song takes an unflinching look at poverty and the plight of the lower class, immigrants and homeless: the very people that the government should be taking care of that it instead allows to fend for themselves. Starving, desperate, abused, and neglected, these people see no other way out of their situation than resorting to violence and crime...actions for which they are arrested and imprisoned, if not killed outright. The song's most gripping moment is when Zach de la Rocha mockingly screams, "Ain't it funny how the factory doors close 'round the time that the school doors close? 'Round the time that the doors of the jail cell open up to greet you like the Reaper?"

In other words, while most children are entering/leaving school, the pvverty-stricken are walking into factories where they can be promised low wages and grueling work until the whistle blows. If not that, then finding trouble and expending what little life is left inside them in the confines of a prison cell. It is a bleak image and all too true in the darker corners of every city in the United States.

As others have said, the reference to the new sound being just like the old sound is a snide reminder to the listener that the grandiose speeches of the government's appointed representatives are just echoes of all that was said by those who came before them. And all the while, a voice can be heard in the undercurrent calling for the expulsion of all "non-natives" in favor of the so-called "chosen" people of God, a direct contradiction to everything the founders of the nation believed it should be about, according to the Constitution.

It is an exceptional song on the strength of its lyrics alone, but the band truly outdid itself with the music, from the high-pitched cry of the guitar to the soft rhthym of the bass during the build to the song's final crescendo.

I don't know if there's a human being that can listen to this song and not feel his or her soul quail in horror at the images it creates. If such a person exists, I hope we never meet.