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This was probably the first album I recognized as "perfect". In high school my friend gave me basically the entire RATM discography in a 4 CD multi-case and would listen to these on repeat at night. And I realized that their debut album was perfect. This is literally another album, like our first entry, where I could skip re-listening and just do a write up from memory. This album is melted into my brain.
Being a much larger album I won't go through each track like before but instead talk about a the rift between the two types of tracks that may knock the album off of "perfect" for you:
So we have two types of songs on this album - rock focused and hip-hop focused. The rock songs are:
Then we have the hip-hop focused songs:
These aren't the prefect descriptor breakdowns because I mean hip-hop infused rock music is like... their whole deal. But you can really feel the divide between these two groups of songs. With Township and Bullet really being those crossover tracks. But what I feel move the "hip-hop" songs out of the rock category is Tom Morello's guitar is very much playing the role of sampler during the verses to the point where if you came for a heavy political rock album these would be your least favorite. And until I recognized this split I felt that way.
But I mean giving these 3 tracks an active listen you can hear a lot of what makes some of the breakout tracks amazing! Township Rebellion's ending is basically Wake Up. Plus that guitar tone in the outro chorus is super tasty. Settle For Nothing is just... raw emotion. Even though I was too young to really understand the lyrics and their meaning I could feel that emotion and really resonated with me. This was one of my absolute favorite songs.
Gosh. There are so many treats in this album though. From Bombtrack just being the perfect intro to this kick ass album. Killing in the Name's iconic two octave whammy solo. Take the Power back combining groovy fucking bass and guitar works with some pure fucking political lyricism. Plus a ripping guitar solo. Everyone thinks of Tom Morello as a gimmicky guitarist but seriously listen to Take the Power Back and tell me he isn't one of the best rock guitarists.
All that but Know Your Enemy is probably the pinnacle of the entire album with that 5th harmony kill switch intro (the kill switch playing immortalized in Bulls on Parade off their second album), a classic rage groove for the verse, and then Maynard (Tool, A Perfect Circle) coming out of nowhere to screaming out "pay" in a way only Maynard can do. Oh and then another fucking insane solo combining amazing playing, more toggled harmonized notes, and ugh the bass tone to close out the bridge building up to the outro (which if you tune into you can hear is just the tone throughout the entire album. It sounds like a mixed clean/dirty bass probably using some type of muff).
If you haven't listened to this album you're in for a real treat. Seriously. I bet if you polled everyone reading this what their favorite track was we wouldn't have anywhere near a consensus. Every song offers something new while delivering a cohesive sound.
And bonus: If you play guitar I highly recommend learning at least the riffs for each of these songs. They're really approachable and so fun to play and just require some gain on your amp.
There really isn't any more I can say. This is another just massive album so you can likely stream it anywhere. On Spotify they have the deluxe edition with some demos and early rage songs that I remember finding on Napster back in the day and loving. So it's nice to be able to hear these tracks on an official release.
Gosh, I really cannot pick. To play on guitar? I love Bombtrack. It's so fun and really brings out the rage. And Killing in The Name I can play note for note and is a blast. But it can be a bit repetitive (though that kinda drives home the point).
To listen to? I mean I just gushed all over Know Your Enemy. Wake Up got solidified in my brain as the ending of the matrix which always just makes me giggle a little bit. (Still though, goose bumps)
Okay, we have to choose - so I'll say 50/50 split:
This actually tracks historically, flip flopping between. The only thing I dislike about Know Your Enemy is I struggle playing it on my guitar. The intro is really easy to mess up and that solo I cannot wrap my head around. But it's a jam to listen to :)