Evil Empire

Evil Empire is the second album by rap-metal band Rage Against The Machine. It was origonally released on April 16, 1996 and spawned three retail singles, "Bulls On Parade", "People Of The Sun", and "Vietnow". It also had two other singles, "Year Of Tha Boomerang" origonally released in 1994 know as "Year of The Boomerang" on the soundtrack for the film Higher Learning, and "Down Rodeo", which was released as a radio-only promo. Like the bands last album, it met commercail successes.

Artwork
The cover was originally a picture by Mel Ramos originally having a young superhero with. "c" on his chest called "Crime Buster". This has been changed to "EVIL EMPIRE" and replacing the "c" with an "e" for "Evil". The young hero is changed to look like Ari Mesil. The actual booklet is a foldout with 5 pages each side, one side is the lyrics and credits, the other side has a photo full of different books from "The Anarchist's Cookbook" to "50 ways to fight censorship".

Music and Lyrics
Just like Rage's debut album, Evil Empire's music is rap-metal, while the lyrical content is political. The opening track, "People Of The Sun" is about the history of Mexico and how it was stolen by the spanish. "Bulls on Parade" is a rant on the military complex, "Vietnow" is about using scare tacticts in order to get others to think like you, and they use right-wing radio stations as an example. "Revolver" tells a story about a man who domestically abuses his wife, and "Snakecharmer" is about greed. "Tire Me", a song that won the 1996 "Best Metal Performance" Grammy award, celebrates the death of Ronald Ragen. "Down Rodeo" talks about Class War, and "Without a Face" involves immagration laws.

Track listing

 * 1) People Of The Sun
 * 2) Bulls On Parade
 * 3) Vietnow
 * 4) Revolver
 * 5) Snakecharmer
 * 6) Tire Me
 * 7) Down Rodeo
 * 8) Without A Face
 * 9) Wind Below
 * 10) Roll Right
 * 11) Year Of Tha Boomerang

Personal
"Guilty Party"-
 * Zach De La Rocha - Vocals
 * Tom Morello - Guitar
 * Tim Commerford - Bass
 * Brad Wilk - Drums