Rage Against The Machine, in only three albums, has achieved the balance they've needed. Previously, their heavy messages and their particularly heavy music have clashed, with one drowning out the other in about half of their songs.

But "Battle" changes that. The music has much more variety than previous albums. "Calm Like a Bomb" has some ridiculous guitar work, as does "Voice of the Voiceless," a call of the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal. "Sleep Now In The Fire," the current single, is an almost straight-ahead rock tune, and pretty darn catchy.

Tom Morello is in peak form on "Battle," creating some insane sounds out of his guitars, such as the 'guitarmonica' solo on "Guerilla Radio" or some Tom-knows-what feedback on "Mic Check." Lyricist Zach De La Rocha screams along with his music with feeling not found too often. Their bassist, under the mocking psuedonym "Y.tim.K" shows off his talent quite often, as does drummer Brad Wilk.

Once again, RATM can make the claim that "All sounds [are] made by guitar, bass, drums, and vocals" only. Listen through this album and gasp at that achievement; it doesn't sound like it came easily. Overall this album is a worthy addition to any Rage fan's collection, and hopefully the thought-provoking messages and powerful music will draw in many new fans for such a deserving band.

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. This recording is, most assuredly, one big misery. For a band that really understood the finer points of Marx, check out Gang of Four's "Entertainment!" "The Battle of Los Angeles" makes for great, angry listening among people who like to see the world in simple, black-and-white views and point fingers. It's also the ideal soundtrack for your next trip to North Korea. Meanwhile, in the former East Germany, stuff like this draws big laughs. One day soon Rage Against the Machine will learn that corporations--like those distributing this record--are benign entities compared to the wrath and bloodlust of state regimes. Turn it up, Pol Pot!

This album, the third from Rage Against the Machine, has long been one of my favorite C.D.'s, and it used to be THE favorite. Every band member--especially guitarist Tom Morello and vocalist Zach de la Rocha-- are at the top of their game, here, and this C.D. just sounds awesome! "The Battle of Los Angeles" is possibly Rage's heaviest and angriest effort, and almost every song is a hit. It's hard to pick best songs, but the radio hit "Guerilla Radio" (which has great riffs, angry rapping, and lots of yelling), "Testify," "Calm Like a Bomb," "Ashes in the Fall" (which is a song where Zach builds from a whisper to a yell), "War Within a Breath," and my personal favorite, "Sleep Now In the Fire" stand out the most. Most of the song structures are the same (with Tom Morello making hip-hop sound effects for Zach de la Rocha to rap over in the verses, and Tom plays bigger, chunkier riffs in the choruses), but when the album sounds this great, how can you complain? This album, which Spin Magazine listed as one of the best C.D.'s of the last 20 years, is also (of course) lyrically very powerful. Zach was always a great vocalist, and an even better lyricist; he could rap in a way that would force you to hang on to every word. "Guerilla Radio" battles Al Gore, whereas "Sleep Now In the Fire" is about government greed, "Testify" is about a whitness testifying in court, "Born As Ghosts" rhymes about children becoming soldiers and fighting in war, and "Ashes In the Fall" takes on religious hypocrisy. This is, in my opinion, this group's finest hour. Tom Morello's crazy guitar noise makes every song sound awesome, and Zach's lyrical strength and bold political statements makes this album relevant and timeless, even several years after its release. Sadly, however, "Battle of Los Angeles" would be Rage Against the Machine's last album of new material (2000's "Renegades" was a covers album.) Well, at least they went out on top!

Mom, could you ask the butler to hand wash my Che T-shirt? And puh-leez make sure that he has it ready in time for the Rage show tonight. I'm going upstairs and try to make it through Das Kapital...again. Those durn big words keep slowing me down. Thank Moa for a band like Rage. They put things in simple terms that even I can understand. Oh, and mom, when my friends come to pick me up - please have the maid stand out back. I don't want 'em to know we're rich.

Rage Against the Machine is one band that will never sell out. Their third (and first for me) album, The Battle of LA, is groundbreaking. Don't compare RATM to bands like Limp Bizkit, Korn, or Kid Rock, though. They are better and have better songs. Unlike Significant Other by Limp Bizkit, which is just 16 tracks thrown together and has no message, The Battle of LA was a well thought-out album and has political messages in it.

Now onto the music. It has 45 minutes of great music. The songs are a mixture of techno, rap, rock, and even a few dance sounds. I like all 12 songs, but "Born of a Broken Man" has to be my favorite. I also love the songs "Testify", "Sleep Now In the Fire", "Maria", "War within a Breath", and the hit "Guerilla Radio". Unlike other bands, all of RATM's songs and sounds are original and believe it or not it says on the CD that all of the sounds are made with drums, bass, guitars and vocals.

So plop down $18 like I did and buy this album. And if you don't like it at first, give it another try a couple days later. It's a worthy investment of $18 and I'm sure you'll be satisfied.