10 Rock Albums That Peak With The Second Song

4. Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine

From the moment they decided to use an image of a monk burning themselves alive as the artwork for their debut album, Rage Against the Machine were a huge presence in the world of music.

Their hyper-aggressive fusion of metal, funk, and rap set them apart from everyone else around at the time, and their sound is still one of the most unique in the business.

That debut album came out in 1992 and got started with the excellent Bombtrack. And then.

And then.

The second track on this album is only bloomin' Killing in the Name - Rage's signature song and one of the ultimate anthems of defiance.

The famous bassline, the patriotism-rejecting lyrics, that outro that we definitely can't repeat here. All these factors and more helped make the song so incredibly memorable to the point where, if Rage didn't play it live, there'd be a riot.

Whilst the thinking man's choice from the self-titled is track three, Take the Power Back, Killing in the Name's enduring popularity gives it the edge.

If Take the Power Back had been a UK Christmas No. 1, then maybe we'd feel differently.

Contributor
Contributor

Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.