Rage Against the Machine probably isn't a band you'd figure influenced Theme Park Mistress, at least based on my Soundcloud page. None of the fifty-eight tracks available display fiery political raps or funk-metal riffing. Nevertheless, that debut album taught me how to play guitar. Tom Morello's unconventional guitar solos were cool, but his heavy single line riffs (played, somewhat surprisingly, on a telecaster) formed the meat of Rage's songs. From Bombtrack to Killing in the Name to Wake Up, Morello teaches a master's class on how to write catchy riffs. Most of these are written in E or drop-D, since Rage pretty much exclusively recorded in the keys of E, D, and A, prompting one friend of mine to complain that all their songs sounded the same. He had a point--AC/DC also had a fondness for the same three keys--but this is rock music, not opera. Simplicity has been built into the medium since Chuck Berry utilized the I-IV-V chord progression. As for the politics of this album, at the time I didn't really care or even know what Zack de la Rocha was talking about, even if I liked the delivery. Rap-Metal was an unholy fusion that resulted in some really bad music, but the fact the de la Rocha wasn't a white boy wearing a backwards baseball cap helped give Rage a level of authenticity that others of the same ilk lacked. And besides Faith No More, most of the the other nu-Metal rappers weren't influenced by the same bands as Rage--Korn and Limp Bizket's detuned sludge didn't evoke Public Enemy, Led Zeppelin, or MC5. So unlike their contemporaries, this album is still very listenable today, even if some of de la Rocha's political rants seem unfocused or random. Personally, I think it's a great album to pump iron to, which would probably make the band sick. Fun fact: I actually first bought this back in the day on cassette tape so I could listen to it out in the garage where I had my weight set.
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