04 RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

(1992)

There’s a lot to say about Rage Against the Machine’s musical innovation, but ultimately every landmark album needs great songs, and Rage had ’em. Their debut had the best set of Jimmy Page-inspired blues riffs since Ledzeppelinii, and frontman Zach de la Rocha created slamming hooks without the need for singing. Drummer Brad Wilk had a Bonhamesque ability to hit each snare slightly late and guitarist Tom Morello also sat behind the beat, sounding like a T-rex stomping through New York. Morello’s preference for neck pickup tones on rhythms made him stand out. He used his Arm the Homeless guitar for standard tuning and American Standard

Telecaster for everything in Drop D, with overdubs from a Les Paul. Sick of tone chasing, Morello picked one amp setting in rehearsal and has stuck with it ever since. Luckily, his Marshall 2205 sounded awesome. Innovation is part luck, and Morello happened to be the first breakthrough guitarist with a Digitech Whammy. But he also had an astonishingly creative mind and a refusal to be limited by conventional approaches. His DJ scratching, created with a killswitch and a wide open wah pedal, was brand new. At times he’d unplug the guitar and exploit the noises made by a live cable. Somehow, Tom made it all work in context without sounding weird for the sake of it.