I still haven't heard Rage's second release, Evil Empire. That doesn't matter. This album, The Battle of Los Angeles, absolutely kicks @$$. Much more than their first release, anyway. This is the best four-star I've ever given an album.

The album art, the shape of a "fight the power" man in black lining chalk is as obviously symbolic as you can get, but its perhaps the best symbolism I've seen in on a record in a long time. People killed for standing up for what's right... heh, obvious, but true.

The first track, Testify, is difficultly the best song on the album. I want to dance every time that I hear this song. There's something about the way that Morello operates his instrument that gives me this swing feeling, but since I'm usually sitting down when I hear it, I just move my head back and forth. The song also righteously demands that the government says what its been doing that its been not telling us about, a statement that I'm just fine with.

Next comes Guerilla Radio, a song zealously overrated, but nonetheless good. Says the alias "Pat,": "I've named all of my English papers after Rage Against the Machine songs and five of them have been Guerilla Radio." Meh... I don't know why, but to each his own, perhaps. The song has a nice little harmonica-sounding interlude, and it fits the tune well.

Calm Like a Bomb, the song I ripped off for my review title, played at the end of The Matrix Reloaded, is the song that really got me into Rage, and is also the song that I always long to listen to more than any song on the album- its not my favorite, but I always feel like having its "I'm going to kick your @$$ attitude" in my ears. Morello's weirder guitar effect fits it beautifully, and the end, where Rocha whispers, "There's a mass without roofs, there's a prison to fill, there's a country soul that reads post no bills, there's a strike in the line of cops outside of the mill, and there's right to obey, and a right to kill," is simply the best part of the song. If I could remix this song, that would be the main part.

Mic Check is weak up until the weird "solo" part, where Morello does more with those effects. However, the chorus on this song sucks horribly, sounding so nasty its almost offensive, and what comes after the "solo" sucks equally. The track would've been better being kept off the record.

I heard Sleep Now in the Fire a while ago, and I liked it then, but not nearly as much as I do now. The song has a silent fierceness to it that I love, and once more, Morello's strange effects make the song so much better towards the end.

I'd have to say Born of a Broken Man is easily the worst song on the record. It has a Metallica-ish tune that I don't like, and Rocha speaks slowly, which might work if his lyrics didn't suck so badly here. I really, really don't like his anti-Christianity point of view, which is contained in most bands like this. Perhaps I could respect it if I really understood it, but I don't. Men like him assume that because some take their religion the wrong way, the religion is evil (and in the meantime, they never dog on Islam- I'm not saying they should, I'm just saying they don't). Meh... I don't like this song.

Born as Ghosts is good, and I've heard its against abortion, but I don't understand how- first of all, Rage is a band for abortion. Second, the lyrics say, "We're born as ghosts, we get to speak our word." Victims of abortion don't get to speak their word, except in statistics.

One of the more special tracks on the album is Maria, largely about the troubles of an immigrant, and forceful in its ways. Morello is great in this song, using a high-pitched pedal to drive the song, and the chorus is particularly good. The "solo" also works, but it doesn't stand out like other solo's included on the record.

Voice of the Voiceless would be just great if it wasn't so short. It has that "I don't know how to release tension" thing going on that MattA75 often speaks of. The song is just a tune, a bridge, and a chorus. And then it ends, quite abruptly. Though its short and solo-less, my favorite line of Rage's is included in here: "But this little brother's watching you too." Heh...

The worst of the good tracks is New Millenium Homes. It sounds a lot like their material from the self-titled, but that doesn't make it bad- there's just something emptier about the song that doesn't make it stand out like the other tracks, with exception of the solo, which sounds so weird, I took my headphones the first time I heard it, because I thought they were going haywire or something...

The most powerful song on the record is easily Ashes in the Fall, which even has a powerful title. Morello starts off with a Nintendo-sounding tune, and then goes into this cry on his guitar, and its a sound that simply overwhelms me every time that I turn on the song. The song seems to be mourning in every instrument of the band, and you can really hear it here. A sad mood comes to me with every listening. Even Rocha sounds like he's about to break into tears.

War Within a Breath is just plain cool, and that's all there really is to it. The hard-core chorus reminds me a lot of Testify, but there's something a lot more kick-@$$ about it that makes the two separable. It is the best chorus on the record. The song starts off with a quieter sound, then really starts to shout, and it works out really well.

I, being in the smallest minority possible, find this album a lot better than any of Rage's other albums, and there are probably a lot of Rage people hating me right now... damn... I think I'll just shut up now... but seriously, Morello uses 'effects' when he should, Timmy C. is really good on the bass, working very well with Wilk, who never fails at the drums. And you can feel more emotion coming from Zach de la Rocha, who has also become a better rapper and/or shouter.

Okay, I really will shut up now...

Rating: B-

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving