Rage Against the Machine

A debut single against police violence that went on to become the band's defining song.

• The opening riff builds its weight from a thick two-note chord (power chord) in drop-D tuning, repeated in a limping stagger.
• The bass and drums hold to a restrained funk rhythm, leaving space for the riff to breathe.
• De la Rocha's delivery shifts sharply from restrained, rap-like verses to something close to a scream in the closing section.
• In the bridge, Morello rapidly clicks the pickup selector switch (toggle switch) to create a sound like a scratched turntable.
• The final refrain has become the section that the whole audience shouts together at live shows.

A debut that fused rap and metal into one, and went on to reshape the genre landscape.

• The self-immolation photograph on the cover declares, visually and up front, the stance of resistance the album holds.
• In most of the songs, the repeated riff itself forms the core of the song rather than a traditional guitar solo.
• Morello layers a wah pedal with an effect that deliberately distorts the sound (distortion), making his guitar sound like a siren or a scratch.
• In the studio, most of the songs were recorded as live takes to preserve their spontaneity, so each track keeps its raw texture.
• The opening of the first track, “Bombtrack,” alone is enough to sense the tension of the entire album.

A song aimed at military intervention, representative of the more overtly political second album.

• The riff, made by rocking the wah pedal down and up, wails like a human voice.
• Commerford's bass sustains the tension of the whole song with a low, descending line that moves like a march.
• Wilk's drumming, with its emphasis on the toms, adds the feel of a military band.
• In the middle there is a section where the other instruments briefly drop out and then come back explosively (breakdown), giving the song its dramatic drop.
• Live, it usually opens the show, lifting the crowd in an instant.

A song aimed squarely at capitalism, famous also for its video shot in front of the stock exchange.

• Brendan O'Brien's production separates each instrument more clearly than before.
• The verse, which starts quietly, expands in the refrain into a chorus shouted together by several members.
• Morello's solo passages are still filled with a technique that mimics the scratching of a turntable.
• The repeated chorus at the song's close builds tension with voices that pile up layer upon layer.

It is the record of the band at its commercial peak.

• Guitar effects spread wider across left and right than on the previous album fill the stereo field.
• On several tracks Commerford's bass takes on a distorted tone, so thick that the line between it and the guitar blurs.
• The history of the Los Angeles riots and the labor movement that the lyrics take up also seeps into the songs' titles and mood.
• The opening riff of “Guerrilla Radio” begins with a sound that imitates broadcast static.

A track from the covers album finished just before the split, retracing the roots the band grew from.

• Morello carries the original's electronic melody over into a guitar line that imitates it through effects.
• De la Rocha's rap keeps the rhythmic feel of the original while delivering it in a rougher, more aggressive tone.
• Even beneath the heavy guitars, the rhythm section never loses the original's dance-floor groove.
• Heard together, the full set of covers reveals what this band borrowed from rap, funk and rock.