RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE Guitarist Discusses 20th-Anniversary Reissue Of Debut Album

November 15, 2012

Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, will release "Rage Against The Machine - XX", commemorative 20th anniversary editions of the eponymous debut album by a great American rock band, on Tuesday, November 27.

Originally released in November 1992, "Rage Against The Machine" signaled the arrival of a revolutionary musical force, a band straddling the worlds of hip-hop and heavy metal with a scorching streetwise sound that rapped and rhymed hardcore across a musical backdrop as menacing and inspirational as graffiti. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE entered the popular lexicon as more than just a revolutionary American rock band, the group's very name provided a rallying battle cry for the ongoing struggles for liberation- — psychic and political — on planet earth.

"We're really psyched to be putting this out for the fans," guitarist Tom Morello tells Billboard.com. "We are blessed with having perhaps the most passionate fans to ever listen to a bootlegged recording or mosh at a show, so I want to really give them a motherlode of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE history, past and present."

He adds, "It doesn't feel like 20 years, but at the same time it's sobering that it is. There's no crystal ball that we could've looked into when we were writing these songs in 1991 that would have told us we'd be talking about this record over two decades later. And I will say that 20 years later we're able to take pride in the fact that in the history of rock music there has never been a more popular band with as radical politics as RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, nor has there been a band with more radical politics than RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE that has been as popular. That is the lasting testament to the first shot fired by this album and how it continues to resonate with rebels around the world."

Formed in 1991, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE opened the gates of a new boundary-obliterating rock-rap musical alliance with the band's literate and politically charged debut album. Driven by Tom Morello's unmistakable guitar wallop and vocalist Zack de la Rocha's salient bulletins from the front, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE became a critical and commercial success, selling millions of copies around the world while attaining legendary status among alt-rock fans. To this day the album, and the band, remain standard-bearers for uncompromising incendiary rock.

Newly remastered for this anniversary release, "Rage Against the Machine - XX" will be available as a CD in three configurations:

1) 20th Anniversary Edition Deluxe Box Set housing two CDs, two DVDs, one 12" 180gm vinyl LP, one 40 page booklet and two-sided poster;

2) 20th Anniversary Special Edition featuring two CDs and a bonus DVD featuring six tracks in an oversized softpack, and

3) 20th Anniversary Edition single compact disc (with three bonus tracks)

"Rage Against the Machine - XX" (20th Anniversary Edition Deluxe Box Set)

CD 1 includes the original album, remastered, with 3 bonus tracks of collectible B-sides from era.

CD 2 presents the original RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE demo tape. Recorded in 1991 and sold for $5 at the merch table at early RAGE shows, the tape achieved mythical word-of-mouth status amongst music fans while helping to seal the band's deal with Epic Records. The 20th anniversary releases of "Rage Against the Machine - XX" marks the first time the entire RATM demo tapes have seen a full official release.

DVD #1 features RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE's historic free concert in Finsbury Park on June 2010, performed as a thank-you to U.K. fans for making "Killing In The Name" the U.K.'s Number One Single during Christmas week 2009. Also included is the band's groundbreaking music videos plus live concert performance clips, some of which are released for the first time ever.

DVD #2 takes you back to the release of RAGE's debut album focusing on live performance from 1991 to 1994 and which features for the first time the full set of RATM's first public performance as well as various live clips.

"Rage Against The Machine - XX" includes new liner notes, penned especially for the band's 20th anniversary by longtime fan and hip-hop pioneer Chuck D.

Check out the complete track listing at this location.

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