Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine

A quiet Saturday evening in Canberra and we pull RATM's self-titled first album from 1992 out of the basket. Not sure martinis are going to cut it.

Bombtrack is a killer opener. The chromatic bass line with the cheeky trill before Zach puts the mic to his mouth and grunts "uhh". The album kicks off with a punch to your guts and there is absolutely no reprieve for the next forty minutes. Bombtrack, like many of the songs on their album, is about power and standing up to it. Threatening the suits, the soldiers and the capitalists with the chant, "burn burn, yes you're going to burn." If there's one word to describe Rage, it's incendiary.

Killing in the Name has a riff that grabs you by the neck and yanks you out of your seat. This is the anthem of our generation, much more than Smells Like Teen Spirt. The Leongatha disco went off when this song came on in between S Club 7 and 5ive. DJs drop this at dance festivals and people go nuts. And it's only become more popular since its release. Eight years later, when my little brother went through the rite of passage of the Leongatha disco, this was still the final song of the night.

After missing seeing Rage live first time around, we caught them at the Big Day Out in 2009 when they reformed. Holy crap it was hectic. The mosh didn't stop, even 80 metres back. We felt a little bit odd, as professionals in their late twenties, jumping up and down screaming "fuck you I won't do what you tell me". Then we looked around and realised that we were surrounded by professionals in their late twenties, all screaming "fuck you I won't do what you tell me". It was electrifying, tens of thousands of people releasing a beast that had been caged since Rage went into hiatus.

The brilliance of Rage is their combination of funk, hip hop and heavy metal. This album created a new genre, with bands like Korn and Linkin Park trying to replicate their sound (and failing miserably). Rage blurred the line between mosh pits and dance floors and awakened the political consciousness of a generation. Take the Power Back has a sawing riff and an insistent chorus, challenging the audience with every line.

The combination of Tom Morello's guitar and Zach's rapping is one of the all-time great music collaborations, both astonishingly and uniquely talented. Neither has been able to reach such heights with other collaborators. And let's not forget the rhythm section, with Commerford's bass delivering the funk.

Settle for Nothing is more of your classic 90s hard rock song. Aggressive riffs and hostile lyrics. But Bullet in Your Head gets your head bopping ludicrously along again.

Wake Up is a riot in a song, accusing the government, police and media of being complicit in keeping power in the hands of a few and eliminating those who stand up to it. Both MLK jr and Malcolm X "turned the power to the have nots. And then came the shot".

There may be bands around today who are as bold, political and aggressive as Rage, but none that reach the mainstream in the way that Rage did. Rage indicted the military, the police and the US Government, accusing all of wanton and intentional brutality. And they got played on FM radio and sold millions of records. The expectation to venerate authority extends all the way into popular music these days; it's unimaginable that a popular band could get away with likening US soldiers to the Ku Klux Klan.

This album is exhausting, exhilarating and inspiring. We won't pretend that Rage will return to regular rotation on our stereo - by the end of the album we feel, frankly, a little bit violated. We are part of the machine now after all!