10 Perfect Metal Albums Everyone Tried To Copy

Most of the rock scene didn't really have any use for the Sunset Strip once grunge started to take over the airwaves. Once the likes of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden became some of the biggest names in music, there was no way we were going to get a huge hit record out of a band like Winger or Warrant ever again. Around the same time that those bands were hitting the Strip circuit though, there was another band that got all the way to the top based on pure aggression.

While Rage Against the Machine may not have fit in with what grunge was doing at the time, people were blown away by their eclectic style, combining bits and pieces of punk, old school rock and roll, and hip hop under one roof. As much as the foundation of a song like Killing In the Name might be heavy, the real draw behind everything is the weird sounds coming out of Tom Morello's guitar and Zack de la Rocha having some of the greatest screams in the history of rock and roll.

People might not have been used to a band like this, but that's because their artistic lane didn't even exist yet. Whether they knew it or not, Rage were on the verge of what would become nu metal, with later bands eventually adopting the mix of rap and rock aggression and channeling it into their own music. Whether that's a credit or blame on Rage's name doesn't really matter though. A band like Limp Bizkit may have come out of this, but this was just a case study with what you could do armed with instruments and a fire in your soul.