For some reason I've been on a RATM kick as of late. Their music always gets me going, but I seem to forget about them frequently. Then one track comes on and I go nuts and listen to them for weeks on end. Strange right? Anyways, I've reviewed two of their other studio drops - both of them getting high praise from the B Side. I don't suspect 1996's 'Evil Empire' will be any different. Part of that is because I have the album cover sitting right next to me on my wall in the office. Part of it also might be this is a 3x platinum album, tied for their best selling album ever. At this point, I'm not sure many people don't know their style. It's pretty unique and cool. I'd say they were the pioneers of the rap/metal game, but I guess you could make arguments for other bands too. Regardless, I like them because of the hard, metal sound they put forth. And it's rare you get hard rock music that has lyrics you can absolutely adore. I'm not big into the political nature of their music, but I like that I can sing along really loud to these guys and everyone else in the car will be singing too. The album title is a play on Ronald Reagan and his name for the Soviet Union in the 80's. This was also released with a B Side (see, that's why I called it that!) that had a live version of 'Bombtrack' and an unreleased cover of NWA's 'F**k Tha Police'. I never heard that, so I'll be searching this afternoon for it. But listening to this again today, it's good. It's really good. Sure this brand of music isn't for everyone, but pretty close to everyone. I'm going to play it as loud as I can the rest of the day.
TRACK LISTING:
1. People of the Sun
2. Bulls on Parade
3. Vietnow
4. Revolver
5. Snakecharmer
6. Tire Me
7. Down Rodeo
8. Without a Face
9. Wind Below
10. Roll Right
11. Year of tha Boomerang
Listen To Samples
Top 3 Tracks:
1. Down Rodeo
2. Bulls On Parade
3. Revolver
FINAL RATING:
4 out of 5 stars
yeah i definitely don't jive with them politically but i enjoy their stuff immensely. plus, tom morello is just *adjective not yet created for how awesome he is*.
ReplyDeleteThey rock. Had their show not been $700 US dollars back a few years ago, I'd have totally gone. But no one is worth that much money.
ReplyDeleteOh well, I'll just keep putting on their old stuff and loving it.
ohh snap!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm so late sometimes. I didn't even realize that I recognized these guys. That's sad ain't it? Anywayz. I'm feeling this, especially for this to be the first time I'm hearing these songs. But, I knew one song from a while ago from them and that was "Guerrilla Radio". Cause I was thinking while listening to the samples, "Jeeze these guys sound super familiar. Why is that?" Duhh, you've heard them before girl!
Thank you for posting this B. You made me wanna dig!
Rage is all over the place. It was hard in the late 90's/early 2k's to not hear them some place. There are probably a bunch of tracks you'd recognize if you heard them. I assume 'Bulls On Parade' would be one of them off this record. That was a huge single.
ReplyDeleteThey only have four studio records I think...all of them solid.