3. Rage Against The Machine - (Self-Titled)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wauzrPn0cfg We briefly touched upon the genius of Tom Morello's guitar compositions wayyy back up top at entry no.21, as although with Audioslave he would go slightly off the deep-end of artistic freedom, creating guitar sound-effects that sound like laughing monkeys, it was with Rage's debut album that the band landed and detonated a smart-bomb of Harvard-degree-level lyrics and riffs so searing they would slice you in two should you not be paying attention. Rage were a band with devout purpose; picking and choosing exactly where to show up and exactly how to spread their message, mostly thanks to the venom-tongued delivery of Zack de la Rocha; a man so fiercely intelligent and ahead of his time that every track on here holds up just as well in 2014 as it ever did in 1992. Occupying their own island in terms of mainstream-crossover success and a cult fanbase that although they blossomed into playing festivals the world over, didn't effect the focus on the group one bit. Inner turmoil would eventually tear them apart through contrasting world views, but it was not before they gave us the likes of Killing In The Name (one of the best live songs ever made), Know Your Enemy and Freedom. Each song fizzles and bubbles over with anti-establishment mentalities and anarchist themes, all cemented in reality by the band's various protests and charity efforts, and it's a mentality that only the full album does justice. It's impossible to get sick of: Everything. From Bombtrack's nuclear-detonation of an intro through to Freedom's triple fake-finish by way of Settle For Nothing's dynamically gorgeous solo and Fistful of Steel's volcanic breakdown, this is middle-finger flailing music at its utmost passionate and engaging. Perhaps a new Rage album in 2014 is exactly what we need?