The Battle of Los Angeles

The Battle of Los Angeles, released on 2 November 1999, is the third album, on which Rage Against the Machine unified springing bass, hard drums, uncanny guitar sounds and sharp words. The songs are short and strong, stacking anger and tension while holding the groove. This one also entered at No. 1 in the US and went double platinum by the following summer. It is their last album of original material. The guitar refuses to sit still as a riff instrument, changing the scenery of a song with noise and scratch-like sounds. “Guerrilla Radio” won the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance, and the video for “Sleep Now in the Fire” — shot by Michael Moore — briefly forced the closure of the New York Stock Exchange. With “Testify,” three songs became singles. “Calm Like a Bomb,” “Born as Ghosts” and “War Within a Breath” keep the density up to the end. Twelve songs. The political stance of the first two records is unchanged: in 1999 they played a controversial benefit for the death-row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. A record that ties the force of rock, hip-hop and funk together at high density.