Evil Empire

Like an expert bomb squad, Rage Against the Machine did little to upset their volatile fusion of Public Enemy polemics and Zeppelin-esque heft on their sophomore album. Megaton mosh-pit strikes like “Bulls on Parade” and “Down Rodeo” delivered more of the earthquaking grooves and brain-scrambling guitar frequencies that powered the band’s explosive 1992 debut, while Zack de la Rocha continued to spit out furious rhymes about the sort of topics (income inequality, the military-industrial complex) that no other ’90s alt-rock star would touch.