Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello, and drummer Brad Wilk. The band is known for melding heavy metal and rap music with punk rock and funk influences, as well as their revolutionary socialist political views. As of 2010, they have sold over 16 million records worldwide. The band will be inducted into the 2023 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.Rage Against the Machine released its self-titled debut album in 1992 to critical acclaim, and achieved commercial success following their performances at the 1993 Lollapalooza festival; in 2003, the album was ranked number 368 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The band’s next two albums, Evil Empire and The Battle of Los Angeles , were also successful; both albums topped the Billboard 200 chart. During their initial nine-year run, Rage Against the Machine became a popular and influential band, and had a large influence on the nu metal genre which came to prominence during the late 1990s and early 2000s. They were also ranked No. 33 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.In 2000, Rage Against the Machine released the cover album Renegades and disbanded after growing creative differences led to De la Rocha’s departure. De la Rocha started a low-profile solo career, while the rest of the band formed the rock supergroup Audioslave with Chris Cornell, the former frontman of Soundgarden; Audioslave recorded three albums before disbanding in 2007. The same year, Rage Against the Machine announced a reunion and performed together for the first time in seven years at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2007. Within the next four years, minus a sabbatical in 2009, the band continued to perform at more live venues and festivals around the world before going on hiatus once again in 2011. In 2016, Morello, Commerford and Wilk formed a new band, Prophets of Rage, with B-Real, Chuck D, and DJ Lord; that band released one EP and one full-length studio album before disbanding in 2019. After an eight-year hiatus, Rage Against the Machine announced in November 2019 that they were reuniting for a world tour, which was initially scheduled to start in 2020, but was ultimately postponed to 2021, and then to 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
