Customer Reviews
Flippin' excellent - By: LM BUTCHER, 08 Aug 2008 
I can't believe it's taken me 12 years before writing this review. What I am glad of though is that I didn't write this within a year of buying "Evil Empire"; when this came outin 1996, I - like many - was expecting a bombastic array of accessible riffage, heavy ranting & slick production similar to RATM's debut. What we got however was a grimy, dark & sinister effort that better showed off RATM's hiphop & punk influences. This was a shock. And it probably explains why it took me a while to get into. Now however, I listen to this album with a huge amount of satisfaction. Everything about it is great: Zack de la Rocha's voice is so aggressive, so vitriolic & just so downright convincing; the guitars & bass (oh, the BASS!) tap very different frequencies so each is heard equally, even though they often play the same thing; & the drums - although not jaw dropping - support everything perfectly. The only thing missing was Tom Morello's speedy guitar shenanigans - but even these aren't missed terribly because the music doesn't cry out for themin the way their first album did. Listening to this album on headphones while walking down the street is like a shot of heroine - it makes you feel 10 foot tall & that bullets will bounce off you. I don't know what else to say - words literally fail me at the sheer greatness of this album. Together with Mr Bungle's "California" & Soundgarden's "Superunknown", I have my desert island discs (and probably the best slab of 1990's rock). An essential purchase for rock connoisseurs everywhere.
one of my top 5 albums ever!!! - By: Mr. D. M. Jones, 03 May 2008 i really cant believe anybody could give this album a negative review, by that i mean anything 3 stars & below. every song on this album is amazing, & much more replay value than their self titled album. you hear the older songs too often, & although they are classics, i personally wouldnt ever listen to them on cd again as i hear them too oftenin rock clubs.
there are obvious crown pleasers on here, such as bulls on parade & people of the sun, but other tracks such as tire me & wind below are just amazing.
i bought this on the day of release about 12 years ago, & though i would write a review today as i have just listened to it & realised how good it is again!
make no mistake, all their albums are great, but dont miss out on this even though it doesnt feature their obvious classics!
not quite the album we expected - By: sean paul mccann, 26 Jul 2006 
I remember getting this on cassette all the way backin 1996,it was four years after the aural onslaught that was the self titled debut,so the gap between them was considerable so i could be forgiven for thinking this would blow my socks off,in truth it just blew one of my socks off,my other foot was still wearing a comfy sock.
The album still has some face punching numbers,such as people of the sun,bulls on parade & tire me,but the album falls off a proverbial cliff during the last few songs & there are few surprises as found on the debut,the anthemic feel isnt quite here on evil empire as well.
In summarizing i believe that evil empire falls short of the debut & maybe thats why it may never get a fair hearing by some,butin truth if you listen to this fully you will see that some of the shine is missing & thats a shame.
After their awesome start, Rage have lowered their standards - By: Peter Brooks, 23 Nov 2004 Rage Against The Machine's self-titled first album was quite simply one of the best ever. The guitar riffs were second to none, & Zack de la Rocha's style of vocals was fresh & interesting. However, they were always going to struggle to beat that epic debut, & sure enough, they did. My main problem with this album is that we don't hear enough of Tom Morello's massive talent on the guitar. It seems as though the CD is just a premise by which de la Rocha can rant & rave about political injustices. Fair enough, that's what happened a lot of the time on the first album, but at least we got to hear a lot of musicianship from the other members of the band. This album has some average riffs on it, but none of the quality of the former. Also, the fact that a lot of the rhythm of de la Rocha's singing is the samein different songs makes you think that maybe you're listening to the same song several times overin the album. This was never the case with the first album, where each track had an aura of elegance & finesse about it. This album feels to have too much anger & violence about it, & Rage seem to have forgotten that they should concentrate on the music & what they're good at.
another amazing piece of work - By: , 20 Oct 2004 Rage have done it again, another brilliant album from the amazing 4som. nerly all the songs are masterpieces. a few lack the complete style we come to expect from a rage song but above all the general feel & rage quailty is there. i hav all the rage albums &in my opinion u cnt beat a first release, there first album is best. so if u r a first time rage buyer, get there first album (rage against the machine) but if ur already a fan or just want to bulk out your music colection with a good album or two this ones for you.
enjoy
