The Battle of Los Angeles

怒れるバンド、レイジ最高傑作!
ザック・デ・ラ・ロッチャ率いるレイジの3rdにして最高傑作!楽曲は歌い上げるフレーズやユニークなフレーズが登場し音楽の幅に広がりをみせつつ、圧倒的なパワー、攻撃性がさらに深まり、ライヴでのテンションそのままの音像に。アメリカをはじめとした資本主義が生み出す欺瞞・矛盾を怒りをぶつけるザックのラップとトム・モレロの変態ギターに痺れる!

これぞ、闘争のロック!『ゴジラ』のサントラに楽曲を提供後、緊急に新しい時代の音を作り始めリリースされた3作目!1stシングル「Guerrilla Radio」(人気格闘技＜プライド＞のオープニングで仕様)始め、キャッチーでアグレッシヴな曲が満載!

Entertainment Weekly - "...This is music made to agitate, not seduce, and at that it succeeds triumphantly....[RATM] make a case that there are still some things worth fighting for." - Rating: A Urban Latino - 3 out of 4 - "...another justice driven steamroller....their conscientious use of talent and wrath for the forces of good is surely applaudable..." Spin - Ranked #47 in Spin's "50 Most Essential Punk Records". Spin - 9 out of 10 - "...a record that perfectly articulates the rap-rock youth rally they themselves spearheaded....They've become a great band that cuts through irony at the same time it piles up contradictions..." CMJ - Ranked #5 in CMJ's "Top 30 Editorial Picks [for 1999]." Vibe - "...a faster cleaner, and far more diverse than anything [they] ever recorded....Rage's music moves confidently forward....BATTLE won't disappoint..." CMJ - "...displays [Tom Morello's] virtuosic guitar talents, stomping on effects pedals and churning out resonant, body-slamming riffs that will leave you shuddering....Anger is a gift, and RATM effectively shapes the emotion into compact, blustery songs..." NME - 7 out of 10 - "...This record rocks...another album of ranting, churning, slamming heavy funk-metal....Wicked!....Keep raging, mad Yank commies, your planet needs you." Rolling Stone - 4 stars out of 5 - "...[BATTLE] is to rap metal what Public Enemy's IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS...was to hip-hop; It brings the noise..." Kerrang - "[T]his was arguably their finest hour. Tight, focused, relentlessly heavy..."

The Battle of Los Angeles is the most focused album of the band's career, exploding from the gate and rarely letting go the whole way through. Like a few other famous revolution-in-the-head bands, Rage Against the Machine have been blessed by the fact that the band is spewing just as much vitriol as its frontman. Any potential problems created here by Zack de la Rocha's one-note delivery and extremist polemics are smoothed over by songs and grooves that make it sound like the revolution really is here, from the single "Guerrilla Radio" to "Mic Check," "Calm Like a Bomb," and "Born of a Broken Man." As on the previous Rage Against the Machine albums, Tom Morello's guitar effects and vicious riffs are nigh overpowering. ~ John Bush|