Rage Against The Machine biography

Furthermore, the album was marked with some outstanding rhythm section work, and Morello's innovative use of guitar effects and trickery to conjure up some nifty sounds. On several of the tracks he used various cunning methods to squeeze sounds out of his guitar, so that he could switch from heavy metal riffery to a record-scratching effect to a burglar alarm chime within a couple of stomps on the effects box. The inlay of the album rather proudly claimed 'No samples, keyboards or synthesizers were used in the making of this recording,' however, what Morello did use was the odd wah-wah and pitchshifter pedal, a great deal of aggression and energy, and some of the most simple, yet addictive riffs you're likely to hear.

The band's huge popularity from the outset most likely came from their multi-layered appeal - to those with a political bent, and also to every teenager who picked up a guitar and wanted to bang out some riffs (or perhaps thirdly, those who just liked a proper mosh while the metal whirlwind was unleashed). Comparisons with Public Enemy (in terms of lyrical outlook, at least) were far from coincidental, too - in that De la Rocha would certainly hold his hands up to Chuck D having been one of his biggest influences.

The single success of 'Killing in the Name' and 'Bombtrack' from the first album brought with them touring commitments, in the shape of Lollapalooza II. In addition, the band publicly aligned themselves with various political organisations and causes, including FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) and Rock for Choice. The band made headlines, albeit few with accompanying photographs in the mainstream press, after protesting against the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC - the people responsible for the controversial 'Parental Advisory' labels) At their Philadelphia Lollapalooza concert, rather than run through a normal set, the four band members (ahem - pardon the pun) stood naked at the front of the stage for fifteen minutes - well, naked save for gaffer tape across their mouths and the letters PMRC across their chests - whilst guitar feedback filled the arena.

This politicization, and flirtation with controversy, continued upon the release of their second album effort, 1996's 'Evil Empire' - culminating in their set being cut short on an appearance on the mainstream entertainment behemoth 'Saturday Night Live', after trying to play their second number with inverted US flags adorning the set (in protest at presidential candidate Steve Forbes being the guest host for that night's edition of the programme). Proving the 'no-such-thing-as-bad-publicity' maxim to hold true, the album entered the Billboard chart at number one, and 1997 brought about a summer tour with the hip-hop giants Wu-Tang Clan.

Their third album release, 1999's 'The Battle of Los Angeles' repeated the feat of entering the charts at number one, and with it's Orwell-influenced content and single promos directed by Michael Moore, continued the politicized and anarchic approach. However, not all was well in the Rage camp - after Commerford was arrested for disorderly conduct, having drunkenly clambered up on the set at the MTV music awards, rifts started to form, no doubt with De la Rocha feeling that his band-mates did not necessarily treat the political agenda as seriously as he did. Early in the new millennium the rapper announced he was heading off to a solo project, eliciting not anger but some surprise from his band-mates, who by the next year had regrouped with former Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell to form Audioslave. In the mean time, Renegades (2000) an album of 12 covers by Rage was released - however, the writing was on the wall and the band was essentially defunct - or should that be de-funked?

De la Rocha's collaborations with hip-hop artists DJ Shadow and El-P certainly weren't as high profile or commercially successful as those of Audioslave, whose eponymous release of 2002, and the follow up album 'Out of Exile' (2005) both sold extremely well. The formula was a proven one - the three instrumentalists continued to pound out the riffs, with Cornell proving the lyrics and vocals, albeit in this case lending his Robert Plant growl rather than the spleen-venting rap of his predecessor. Meanwhile, Morello had also kicked off a totally new project, 'Nightwatchman', as whom he performed acoustic folk music, first in an LA coffee-house, then graduating to Billy Bragg's 'Tell us the Truth' tour. Speaking about his side-project as 'the black Robin Hood of 21st century music', Morello said in an interview: "From Bob Dylan to Public Enemy to Rage Against the Machine, the important subset of American music in troubled times brings out some of the best and most inspiring art. Some songs are a mirror that reflects your emotions or society, but a great song is a hammer that shapes the time you live in. With the Nightwatchman, that's my endeavour: to swing that hammer with all my might."

Another significant swing came in 2005, when Morello and De la Rocha appeared together in public for the first time since the band had split, at a rally in support of a South L.A. community garden. This set the rumour mill turning, and in mid January 2007 it was officially announced that whole band would be reforming to play at the Coachella festival - the first instance of which they had also played at back in 1999. The two key players then surprised many with a nigh-impromptu set played at an early April rally in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (farmers growing tomatoes for the fast food industry). As comebacks go, it was a slightly strange one, as the two had pieced a set together 20 minutes before going on stage, but Morello was pretty chuffed with the whole thing: "It was very exciting for everybody in the room, myself included. I mean, the place was just packed to the rafters and even the stage was packed with this ring of 25 photographers two feet away from us while we were playing, so it was kind of a trippy, you know, way to do our first show. But it was a great cause and we were happy to be a part of the Immokalee farmworkers victory."

• Rage Against the Machine Discography