Prophets of Rage need to spend more time generating new material
The Party’s Over (Universal)
Guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford, and drummer Brad Wilk can probably play fist-pumping funk-metal grooves in their sleep, having worked together steadily since Rage Against the Machine formed in 1991. (To say nothing of Audioslave—no, really, let’s not talk about Audioslave.)
Prophets of Rage teams that intrepid trio up with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Cypress Hill members B-Real and DJ Lord. On paper, that’s pretty exciting. While the new group’s debut EP is hardly lacking in energy or leftist sloganeering—or, well, rage—it suggests that this particular supergroup has spent little time woodshedding new material. Of the five songs here—three of them live recordings—only the title track is a true original. “Prophets of Rage” is a metallic update of a Public Enemy song, “No Sleep Til Cleveland” features the lyrics from PE’s “Fight the Power” grafted onto the balls-to-the-wall riff from the Beastie Boys’ “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”, and “Killing in the Name” is a straightforward reading of RATM’s debut single.
Prophets of Rage’s rehashing of its members’ past output gets ridiculous with “Shut ’Em Down”. It’s a PE song from 25 years ago, but this version is based on Cypress Hill’s 2010 cover, which featured some dude named Tom Morello.
That leaves us with “The Party’s Over”. Let’s just say you’ll love it—if you happen to be a fan of Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, and Cypress Hill.
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