2. Pistol Grip Pump: 9/10 I'm not normally a huge rap fan, but zach really connects with the band on this one, great rythym!

3. Kick out the Jams: 8/10 Another incredible song, not about politics, but a great one to just bounce to at a party.

4. Renegades of Funk: 10/10 Deserves all the radio play it got, another amazing party beat, but with very meaningful lyrics if you listen to them.

5. Beautiful World: 5/10 Not one of my favorites. It's cool that the band tried to do something different, but this is just a little to different for me.

6. I'm Housin: 9/10 Excellent bass at the beginning, very mellow until the chorus, which makes you wanna yell along. One of my favorites.

7. In My Eyes: 7/10 I don't dislike this song, i just don't like it as much as all the others. But still good, don't get me wrong.

8. How I could just Kill a Man: 9/10 Amazing! They do a better job with this song than i think Cypress Hill did! Awesome beat, great lyrics, another headbanger.

9. The Ghost of Tom Joad: 10/10 A tie with microphone fiend for my favorite song of the album! meaningful lyrics, great beat and rythym, Tom Morello just outdoes himself every time.

10. Down on the street: 8/10 Just plain cool, hear it for yourself!

11. Street Fighting Man: 9/10 Another great one, luv the lyrics, zach puts the beat down like no other!

12. Maggie's Farm: 10/10 I never thought i'd see Rage cover Bob Dylan, but they do it and are great at it! Very deep and meaningful lyrics to go along with great music!

13. Kick out the Jams(live):9/10 better than the studio version, sounds more crazy and fun!

14. HOw i could just kill a man (live): 10/10 what a great way to end this great album, by bringing in cypress hill! i've never been a real cypress hill fan, but they have awesome chemistry with zach and the rest of the band!

BUY THIS CD NOW!!!!!!!!!!!


4.5. Odd, but very effective cover album   December 15, 2004
General Zombie (the West)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Reviewing RATM pretty pointless, as how many people are there out there who are interested in them but haven't actually heard them, and it seems like most people who have heard them tend to have extremely strong opinions, good or bad, and are very unlikely to be swayed by reviews. But hey, they're one of my favorite bands, it's ridiculous that I haven't gotten around to reviewing more of their work, so I better get at it.

Cover albums tend to be an odd proposition, particularly when done by metal/hard rock bands. Lots of the time, they just replicate the original song, or take it and make it sound like their original material. RATM seem to have found a middle ground here, sometimes replicating the original sound, (In My Eyes) sometimes making it into an RATM song (Maggie's Farm), and sometimes making something new. Still, most of it comes across as alt-metal, but it frequently has a different flavor than most of their previous work. This album marks the only all-out foray into rap-metal that RATM ever underwent. Sure, RATM were rap-metal innovators, to a degree, and they had some funky groove and Morello's squealing resembled scratching, but the fact of the matter is, Zack never really rapped much on the earlier albums. (And that's not all they did, anyway also contrary to popular opinion.) He just sorta barked, for the most part, more reminiscent of a hardcore punk or thrash vocalist. Here, however, the rap covers are true rap-metal songs, with more bass and groove, less emphasis on the riffs, and actual rap vocals. And, wouldn't you know it, they work damn well. Zack always was one of my favorite vocalists, and he's particularly good here, combining his intensity with some more subtlety and smoothness.

This album is not 100% consistent, and has a few throwaway tracks, but it's interesting enough as a whole, and has strong enough standout tracks to earn high marks from me. Microphone Fiend is perhaps the best song here. It all comes together, thunderous bass-lines, great, still innovative guitar work and some great vox. This basic description applies to Pistol Grip Pump, Renegades of Funk and How I Could Just Kill a Man too, though they aren't on quite the same level.(still very good to excellent, though) I'm Housin isn't as strong. It's got nice atmosphere and a good intro, but the core song isn't that exciting. Decent, but not great. Beautiful World is simple, short and atmospheric song, which doesn't necessarily go anywhere, but it works quite well, particularly in the context of the album. In My Eyes is totally great, maintaining all the rage and intensity of the original. The Ghost of Tom Joad is a real epic, as far as RATM is concerned, with a nice slow build to the enormous, crushing chorus riff. Maggie's Farm is a nice closer, a bit more of a classic Rage track. The main riff rules, as usual, and Zack gives some particularly fierce vocals, particularly when the song really picks up. As for all the tracks I didn't even mention, well they're decent, but not that memorable. Not bad, really, but not very interesting.

Buy it.



Last RATM CD a salute to their predecessors...   December 6, 2000
CJ Marsicano (Northeastern Pennsylvania)
21 out of 28 found this review helpful

Ever since I heard RATM's versions of N.W.A.'s "F___ Tha Police" and Public Enemy's "Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos" on the Live And Rare import, I wanted to hear what other hip-hop classics they could transform. I wasn't dissapointed. Evidently, the band has chosen songs from artists without whom there would have never been an RATM in the first place -- everything from Dylan, the Stones, the MC5 and the Stooges to Springsteen, EPMD(!), Cypress Hill, and Afrika Bambatta. and Their versions of Eric B. & Rakim's "Microphone Fiend" and Cypress Hill's "How I Could Just Kill A Man" in particular don't dissapoint at all. I was both surprised and pleased to not only hear RATM cover Minor Threat and Iggy & The Stooges ("Down On The Street"), but to hear Zach De La Rocha SING rather than rhyme on "Kick Out The Jams" and "Beautiful World" (although I honestly didn't expect RATM to turn the latter into a ballad!). This album could have been a milestone RATM release and a hint at their musical direction... unfortunately, unless Zach changes his mind and/or they settle their differences and get back to business, it could end up being the last, at least with the original lineup. Which is too bad, because with King George II waiting in the wings to destroy the country he is supposed to serve, we need more aware, conscious artists like Rage Against The Machine and the much missed Dead Kennedys (rather than ignorant slacker bands like Korn and Godsmack) to get through the next four years. God help us all if there's still an America left in 2004, or even 2001...


They should have stuck together....   December 12, 2000
J. Michael Showalter (Nashville, TN United States)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

The idea of albums composed wholly of cover songs always seems to occur just as bands head toward self-destruction. Guns n' Roses had 'The Speghetti Incident': I was afraid that this album, released just after De La Rocha quit the band, would also be... well awful and sound the death-rattle of what has been for a long time one of my favorite bands.

And there is good and bad: this is a pretty well constructed album. Especially when they cover hip-hop acts, they are performing near as good as they ever have: 'How I Could Just Kill a Man' and 'Microphone Fiend' hit just as hard as the originals did; 'Street Fighting Man' is another classic. I'm still not so sure of what I think of the songs where De La Rocha sings: I'm not inclined to think that they're awful so much as I am to think that that is not where this bands strength lies. The Dylan cover of 'Maggie's Farm' is sung but just really, really good.

This is a definate album for fans of Rage to buy; hip-hop heads would benefit, too, from hearing how this BAND took their samples and scratching and sold it through using mainly just guitars and basses (Tom Morello is the man....) It makes me mad that this is probably the last album from this group: I'm not so sure B-Real from Cypress Hill could pull off the Marxist angst that made this band so powerful; and it's a shame. .... Their album covers were always flat ... as far as providing reading material to strighten out conservative bias in America's media....