Some fans struggled to accept it when members of Los Angeles rap-rock renegades Rage Against The Machine formed Audioslave with the late Chris Cornell, who swapped RATM vocalist Zach de la Rocha’s politically-charged raps for classic rock crooning. Those fans may have an easier time with Prophets of Rage, which sees the same set of musicians team up with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Cypress Hill’s B-Real. Guitarist Tom Morello told Rolling Stone: “We’re not a supergroup. We’re an elite task force of revolutionary musicians determined to confront this mountain of election year bullshit, and confront it head-on with the Marshall stacks blazing.”
That quote is a clue as to the unabashed vital righteousness of the band’s self-titled debut album. Morello does what he did so brilliantly in Rage and Audioslave – looping riffs as thick as a hangman’s noose, with occasional forays into squealing, semi-psychedelic guitar solos – while D and B-Real rail against the establishment. “No hatred / Fuck racists” they declare on ‘Unfuck the World’, which evokes of the sound of Rage’s explosive 1999 track ‘Guerilla Radio’. This is not a subtle record, but these are not subtle times. So grab a Marshall stack, put it through a fascist’s window and let’s start the revolution. Now.
