This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
They’ve always known how to rock the house — and rouse the rabble — but now Rage Against The Machine have learned how to shake their collective booty.
The band that helped design and draft the rap-metal template for lesser lights like Limp Bizkit get a serious groove on for this worthwhile third album, infusing their trademark hybrid of hip-hop and heavy rock with backbeats funky enough to make Flea jump for you. Not that they’re in any danger of being mistaken for the Red Hot Chili Peppers; at least, not as long as Tom Morello’s guitar still grinds and divebombs and singer Zack de la Rocha still screams and spits left-wing rants / raves / raps like the love child of Ad-Rock, Sam Kinison and Noam Chomsky. Even so: With The Battle Of Los Angeles, it does seem that RATM have succumbed to Funkadelic’s motto — free your mind and your ass will follow.
