Maps of Music

Evil Empire (1996)

Where the lyrics of Evil Empire take you, and where it was really made.

The title is a phrase Ronald Reagan and American conservatives used for the Soviet Union, and Rage Against the Machine turned it back on the United States.

Key places

Main recording studio in Los Angeles (1996)

Recording site Motown Recording Studios — The album's recording location listed in the credits is Cole Rehearsal Studios in Los Angeles, California. The point sits at the city centre, not at the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Down Rodeo vocals recorded in Melbourne (1996)

Recording site Sing Sing Studios — Vocals for the track Down Rodeo were recorded at Kiss Music Recording Studios in Melbourne. The point sits at the city centre, not at the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Evil Empire: second studio album by the American rock band Rage Against the Machine
• Released April 16, 1996 by Epic Records
• Debuted at number 1 on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 249,000 copies
• Title refers to a term used for the Soviet Union

Background

• Title taken from a term used in the early 1980s by President Ronald Reagan and many American conservatives
• The band feels the same label could be applied to the United States
• The band points to atrocities committed by the US in the latter half of the 20th century
• Album came nearly four years after the band's self-titled debut of 1992

Recording

• Recorded at Cole Rehearsal Studios in Los Angeles, California
• Down Rodeo vocals recorded at Kiss Music Recording Studios in Melbourne
• Mixed at The Enterprise; mastered at Gateway Mastering Studios
• Produced by Brendan O'Brien, with Rage Against the Machine as co-producers
• Engineering by Nick DiDia

Cover

• Altered version of a 1940s–1950s comic book painting of Crimebuster by Mel Ramos
• Emblem on the boy's costume changed from c to lowercase e
• Caption changed to the album title
• Boy on the cover was author and businessman Ari Meisel at age 11

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1991.
• Formed after Tom Morello's former band Lock Up broke up; the name came from a song Zack de la Rocha wrote for his former hardcore punk band Inside Out.
• Signed with Epic Records after releasing a self-released demo cassette.

Members

• Zack de la Rocha (vocals), Tim Commerford (bass), Tom Morello (guitar), Brad Wilk (drums).

Career

• Debut album Rage Against the Machine (1992) was a critical and commercial success; ranked 221st on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2020).
• Commercial breakthrough came after the 1993 Lollapalooza performance.
• Evil Empire (1996) and The Battle of Los Angeles (1999) both topped the Billboard 200.
• Disbanded in 2000 after de la Rocha quit; Morello, Wilk and Commerford formed Audioslave with Chris Cornell.
• Reunited in 2007, toured internationally, went on hiatus in 2011, and formed Prophets of Rage in 2016.
• Second reunion in 2019 led to the Public Service Announcement Tour, cut short by de la Rocha's injury in 2022.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023; Wilk confirmed in 2024 the band had disbanded again.
• Sold more than 16 million records worldwide as of 2010; influenced the nu metal genre.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone said the music is not supposed to be fun, describing the band's sociopolitical siege mentality in its metallic hip-hop
• Rolling Stone also called the band's harangue 'n' roll sexless in its dogmatic perfection
• AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine was less impressed
• Erlewine said the band lacked the dexterity to fully execute its metal and hip-hop fusion
• Erlewine concluded that the album succeeds only on the level of a sonic assault

Reappraisal

• Walter Schreifels, frontman and guitarist of Quicksand, put the album on his list of the ten best post-hardcore albums
• Schreifels said it exposed a more general audience to hardcore than the self-titled debut did
• Andrew Flory and John Covach, in their book What's That Sound?, said the album cemented the band as an important force in the rap-rock style
• Loudwire staff chose it as the best hard rock album of 1996 in 2024
• Consequence ranked it No. 6 on its list of the top 60 albums of 1996 in 2026

Records

• Debuted at number 1 on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 249,000 copies
• Tire Me won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance
• Bulls on Parade and People of the Sun were nominated for Grammys for Best Hard Rock Performance
• Certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on May 24, 2000

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Title comes from a Cold War phrase used by Reagan and conservatives for the Soviet Union, and the band applies it to the United States instead
• A French Wikipedia entry says the band, true to its convictions, uses Evil Empire to mean the United States
• The album title is therefore a deliberate inversion of the original political meaning

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

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