Sep 15, 2017
During the tumultuous political year the United States had in 2016, Tom Morello began making some noise. Mystery surrounded the exciting premise behind a project involving other Rage Against the Machine alumni Brad Wilk and Tim Commerford, as well as Public Enemy's Chuck D and Cypress Hill's B Real. Almost as soon as speculation began, the newly conceived and self-aggrandizingly named supergroup Prophets of Rage obliterated their namesake song's mission with an on-the-nose branding:
Dangerous music for dangerous times.
Morello had the sense to tour the band a full year before releasing an album, playing satisfying sets of all three band's classics. However, listening to twelve original songs from these desperate groups does not bring the stadium-ready energy Chuck D barking "F**k you, I won't do what you tell me" to a sold out amphitheater. In fact, all Prophets of Rage's self-titled debut answers a question that, with good reason, no one ever thought to ask: "What would Rage Against the Machine sound like if Zack de la Rocha was a terrible lyricist?"
Dangerous music? I don't think so. Prophets of Rage tries so hard to be smart, and this endeavor tumbles awkwardly all over itself. You can picture Morello's eyes widening at the brilliance of B Real intoning "They smoke in Colorado / They smoke in Cali, too / I smoked all night / but that's alright / I'll still fight back tomorrow" on the freshman creative writing class wit of "Legalize Me."
The two most striking things about Prophets of Rage's self titled album present the great contradiction of this album. First, these are not dangerous songs. They're terribly silly. "Unfuck the World" offers cringe after cringe of epithets like (literally) the band yelling "fuck racists" over Morello's mind-numbing instrumentation. The second striking thing on this album is how exceptionally Morello is at building these compositions. His guitar and their production, somehow, overshadow the band's hideously unaware lyricism.
Approaching Prophets of Rage is easy, and even rewarding, if you listen to it as a low-stakes throwback to exciting and rock-crowd-ready rap rock. Sadly, Morello and his merry band of misfits work so hard to remind you how serious they are.
Image: Prophets of Rage website