1. Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine
Where Slayer and Slipknot rained down on us with excessive violence, Rage Against The Machine's incredible debut album was a scalpel of pure, condensed anger. Unlike the loose-cannon approach of many of their contemporaries, Rage Against The Machine were laser-focused. Brilliant instrumentation, poignant lyrics, an intoxicating groove - this was knife-edged freedom-fighter music, a molotov cocktail of seething metal riffs and rebel rap through gritted teeth. They took the prickly subject of racial inequality and the endless battle with "the man" and set it alight. This was Public Enemy with bloodied knuckles. And without a hint of Flavor Flav comic relief to lift the mood. Zack de la Rocha's gruelling, passionate vocal style was like a revolutionary fist, clenched and powerful, spitting through ten tracks of thought-provoking hostility. When he tears into the sublime Killing In The Name and its unforgettable "F*ck you, I won't do what you tell me!" repeat towards the end, it's a call to arms, a shattering and thunderous threat to the system. While that lead single gets away with very few lyrics to get the message across, elsewhere Zack is prolific - he strikes out at slavery, the atrocities of the US government, apartheid, the education system, religion... effectively raging against the machine in every possible way. This is a man you definitely don't want to have over for dinner with your Republican in-laws. Tom Morello's guitar work is ferocious and razor-sharp, underpinned by a rhythm section like an assault rifle. If you're looking at the brutality of something like Slayer's God Hates Us All or Slipknot's Iowa, you might find it odd that Rage takes first place here. It's simple: while those albums are clearly more violent and abrasive, RATM's impossibly brilliant debut took anger and aimed it like a sniper rifle at something real. These other bands dish it out with incredible power, but Rage Against The Machine did more... they lived it. This was anger which spilled into reality, not just stage theatrics or shock-mongering. Authentic, believable aggression, distilled into musical form by one of the most technically proficient bands in rock history. Which other albums do you think belong on this list? Share your suggestions below in the comments thread below.
Game-obsessed since the moment I could twiddle both thumbs independently. Equally enthralled by all the genres of music that your parents warned you about.
