The Battle of Los Angeles

1	Testify 3:30
2	Guerrilla Radio 3:26
3	Calm Like a Bomb 4:58
4	Mic Check 3:33
5	Sleep Now in the Fire 3:25
6	Born of a Broken Man 4:40
7	Born as Ghosts 3:22
8	Maria 3:48
9	Voice of the Voiceless 2:31
10	New Millennium Homes 3:44
11	Ashes in the Fall 4:37
12	War Within a Breath 3:36

Barnes & Noble

It's kind of hard to really rage against the machine when your band is like a supercharged battery cell that helps the machine operate more efficiently. Such is the dilemma that has plagued Rage Against the Machine since their career hit terminal velocity. But instead of coming up with reasons to justify their existence, Rage just continue to rage. Lyrically, they'll probably open some more young minds with their antigovernment, proletariat agenda, but it's their music that speaks most loudly. On its third album, THE BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES, the band expands upon its combustive rap-metal foundation, flavoring "Guerrilla Radio" with a guitar-generated "harmonica" solo, upping the burning funk quotient on "Calm Like a Bomb," and embellishing "Mic Check" with skittering beats, echoing feedback, and a staccato chorus that sounds not unlike electronica kingpins Prodigy. Throughout the disc, guitarist Tom Morello coaxes more otherworldly noises from his instrument than a DJ with a stack of sound-effect records, as vocalist Zack de la Rocha rails against the evildoers and capitalists who oppress the masses -- and, well, pay the band members' salaries. Jon Wiederhorn

All Music Guide

Rage Against the Machine isn't really the only metal band that matters, but their aggressive social and political activism is refreshing, especially in an age of blind (or usually self-directed) rage due to groups like Limp Bizkit, Bush, or Nine Inch Nails. Recorded in less than a month, 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 (most notably Minor Threat), Rage Against the Machine has always 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 album highlights like "Mic Check," "Calm Like a Bomb," and "Born of a Broken Man." As on the previous two Rage Against the Machine albums, Tom Morello's roster of guitar effects and vicious riffs are nigh overpowering, and are as contagious as the band has ever been since their debut. De la Rocha is best when he has specific targets (like the government or the case against Mumia Abu Jamal), but when he attempts to cover more general societal problems, he falters. If anything less than one of the most talented and fiery bands in the music world were backing him, The Battle of Los Angeles wouldn't be nearly as high-rated as it is. John Bush