Together and apart, the four musicians who make up Rage Against The Machine have one of the most diverse collective back catalogues in music. While Rage’s barricade-storming rap-metal only lasted for eight years on record, since 2000's Renegades, its members have tried their hands at everything from the protest-folk of Tom Morello’s Nightwatchman project to the hard rock of Audioslave and the jazzy hip-hop of vocalist Zack de la Rocha’s One Day As A Lion project. But of all the albums the four men have made since Rage last put out a record, which stand tallest? We ranked them all, from worst to best.
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7. Prophets Of Rage – Prophets Of Rage (2017)
Proof that ideas that look good on paper don’t always work out. When the news that hip-hop legends Chuck D of Public Enemy and Cypress Hill’s B-Real were going to be working with Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk fans of rock and rap rejoiced. What we got was some pretty good live shows, as the two MC’s did a passable karaoke of Rage songs, but some listless, plodding, bored-sounding music of their own. Much like the The Party’s Over EP that prefaced it, Prophets Of Rage is a massively disappointing effort from some individuals that should have known much better. One listen to the cringeworthy Take Me Higher, which mainly consists of Chuck D grumbling about drones and sounding like a miffed grandad shooing some kids off his lawn, should be enough to convince you that this is a career low point for everyone involved.
6. The Nightwatchman – One Man Revolution (2007)/The Fabled City (2008)/World Wide Rebel Songs (2011)
Conceived by the guitarist in the aftermath of the messy end of Audioslave, and inspired by his love of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, The Nightwatchman project has spawned three full length albums and an EP since 2007. We’re bundling the LPs together here, because some of it is decent enough if you’re a fan of bare-bones singer-songwriters, but nothing that has been released under this banner is exactly essential. The main problem is that Morello doesn’t really have the voice to carry such minimalistic music on his own, although, conversely, The Nightwatchman is usually the most successful when it is at its quietest, such as on the excellent Battle Hymns from debut album One Man Revolution. A curio for hardened Morello fans only.
5. Audioslave – Revelations (2006)
By 2006, the fire that had driven Audioslave appeared to be all but extinguished. Almost immediately after Revelations was completed, vocalist Chris Cornell went solo and recorded the song You Know My Name for the James Bond film Casino Royale, and Morello was quickly working on The Nightwatchmen rather than tour the record, and an inevitable split was confirmed soon after.
Listening to Revelations today you can hear why. The band had clearly run out of steam by this point, rehashing ideas from previous records but with far less satisfying results. It isn’t a terrible album – Sound Of A Gun retains some of the fire of old – but it is a pretty dull one. Which, when you consider the people involved, feels like an even bigger crime.
4. Tom Morello – The Atlas Underground (2018)
For his first solo album, Morello took the magpie-like approach of trying to incorporate as many artists and genres into one album as he possibly could. Roping in members of bands as diverse as Mumford And Sons and Wu Tang Clan, it was always going to be difficult to make The Atlas Underground feel like a coherent piece, and the record is certainly patchy. When it is good, it is well worth your time: the collaborations with rapper K.Flay on Lucky One and the surprisingly great Find Another Way with Marcus Mumford are both high points. But when square pegs are jammed into round holes - such as bringing together Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath with EDM superstar DJ Steve Aoki – it’s pretty painful.
3. Audioslave – Out Of Exile (2005)
On a high after the critical and commercial success of their self-titled debut, Audioslave must have felt confident that they were going to be able to kick on and become one of the early 00s’ definitive bands. It didn’t quite work out like that. Out Of Exile is a decent enough record, but there really aren’t enough moments here to get really, truly excited about. Highlights are still present, though, especially with the album's singles – the woozy croon Chris Cornell uses to drive Doesn’t Remind Me is simplistic but seductive.
2. One Day As A Lion – One Day As A Lion (2008)
Zack de la Rocha has kept a much lower profile than his Rage bandmates. His CV amounts to a couple of low-key solo singles, a few guest spots with the likes of DJ Shadow and Run The Jewels and this one-off collaboration with The Mars Volta/Queens Of The Stone Age drummer John Theodore and ex-The Locust keyboard player Joey Karam. Their union may have yielded this lone five-track EP, but its mix of acid jazz rhythms, unusual time signatures and de la Rocha’s unmistakable lyrical firepower prove that he was always the RATM member willing to take the most risks musically. It’s just a shame they left it at this.
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1. Audioslave – Audioslave (2002)
When Audioslave were touted as Chris Cornell fronting Rage Against The Machine, fans of alternative rock couldn’t help but salivate at the prospect. Still, just like with most supergroups, there was still an air of trepidation that hung around the band at first, with many wondering if the pairing could gel. As soon as you heard the first album by the band, however, all that went away, Audioslave is a hell of a record, which, for once, finds a supergroup managing to live up to the sum of its parts. Cornell’s voice is, as ever, the most wonderfully rasping, honey-soaked croon and bellow you’re ever likely to hear, and the band behind him live out their stadium rock, Led Zeppelin fantasies with incredible results. Cochise and Like A Stone became huge hits and propelled Audioslave into the same positions on festival bills as their previous bands had afforded them, but less talked about numbers like Gasoline and Light My Way are every bit as good.
