walking upstream…
Rage Against the Machine
photo: penner · cc by-sa 3.0 ↗Rage Against the Machine
Formed in Los Angeles in 1991 by vocalist Zack de la Rocha, guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford, and drummer Brad Wilk, Rage Against the Machine fused Chuck D-style political rap vocals with Morello's turntable-mimicking guitar work and a rhythm section drilled in hardcore-punk urgency. Four studio albums between 1992 and 2000 - Rage Against the Machine, Evil Empire, The Battle of Los Angeles, and the covers record Renegades - made the band's explicitly leftist, anti-corporate lyrics as recognizable as its sound, and "Killing in the Name" became a fixture of protest playlists decades later when a 2009 Facebook campaign pushed it to the UK Christmas number-one spot over a reality-TV favorite. De la Rocha's 2000 departure ended the band's studio output, though the original lineup has reunited for touring twice since (2007-2011, 2019-2024).
the sound in question
1992
Killing in the NameRage Against the Machine
walk the tributaries ↓
Black Sabbath1970s · Heavy metal / Hard rock
Tom Morello has named Tony Iommi as one of his biggest influences as a riff writer, putting him alongside Jimmy Page as 'ground zero' for his riff vocabulary even as he layered hip-hop and noise elements on top. RATM's riffs lean on the same logic Morello has credited to studying Iommi: simple, heavily repeated, low-string patterns built for weight rather than technical display.
listen: upstream & here
1970
Iron ManBlack Sabbath
1992
BombtrackRage Against the Machine
listen forThe chugging, palm-muted low-string riff that drives Bombtrack - a handful of repeated notes carrying all the heaviness, the same blunt, blues-stripped menace Iommi pioneered on early Sabbath records, just sped up and paired with rapped verses instead of Ozzy's croon.
Public Enemy1980s · Hip hop / Political hip hop / Conscious hip hop
Writers tracing Rage's lineage single out Public Enemy as, in Louder's words, 'quite possibly the closest band in terms of style to Rage Against The Machine,' crediting Chuck D and the Bomb Squad's blend of hard-hitting rap production and open anger at 'the establishment' as a direct blueprint. Morello has separately said the Bomb Squad's production gave him more of a guide for his own guitar playing than the usual rock, metal, or soul players.
listen: upstream & heresource: Louder ↗
1987
Bring the NoisePublic Enemy
1999
Sleep Now in the FireRage Against the Machine
listen forThe blunt, shouted political address of Zack de la Rocha's verses on Sleep Now in the Fire - protest delivered as a chant meant to be yelled back at the stage rather than as storytelling, the same confrontational, sloganeering mode Chuck D established as Public Enemy's default.
Run-D.M.C.1980s · Hip-hop / Old-school hip-hop
Morello has said that even in his pre-Rage band Electric Sheep he was 'profoundly influenced by Run-DMC, and DJ Jam Master Jay in particular,' and that Run-DMC and Public Enemy's production team the Bomb Squad gave him more of a 'compass' for his guitar playing than any rock, metal, or soul players. That grounding is what led him to treat the guitar itself as a turntable in Rage - working the pickup toggle switch like a DJ's cut switch to fake a vinyl scratch (a technique he's also linked, for the specific case of the Bulls on Parade solo, to chasing a Geto Boys-style menace rather than any one turntablist).
listen: upstream & here
1986
Peter PiperRun-D.M.C.
1996
Bulls on ParadeRage Against the Machine
listen forThe toggle-switch 'scratch' effect punctuating the Bulls on Parade solo - Morello rubbing his palm across the strings while flicking the pickup selector on and off to fake a DJ cutting a record, the guitar-as-turntable idea he'd been chasing since citing Run-DMC and Jam Master Jay as chief influences on his songwriting before Rage even existed.