In the spring of 1996, Rage Against the Machine released their sophomore album, Evil Empire, a record detailed in history, left-deep in politics, and driven by urgency. Named after a hypocritical statement from Ronald Regan describing the U.S.S.R, the album followed the radical theme of their debut released four years before—a very long time by music history standards. It didn’t come easy, like anything worth its weight in leftist ideals. Personal and professional differences stalled recording, and some say, almost ended the band altogether. The sound of Evil Empire is embedded with a spirit that can only be accomplished by a group that has worked their disagreements out for a more significant cause. With Brendan O’Brien at the production helm, and the band’s talent up front, the record went three times platinum in the United States. But the album is much more than successful sales—it is a lesson in emergence.

Wanting to keep the sentiment from their self-titled debut going, RATM started creating quickly after the end of a three-year tour in support of their first album. With Zach De la Rocha’s fiery vocals, Tom Morello’s funky hard guitars, Tim Commerford’s passionate bass, and Brad Wilk’s intense drumming, Evil Empire was set to be stacked from the start. Unfortunately, with talent and a deep sense of integrity in getting their message across, RATM struggled to keep it together during the early part of recording in Atlanta, and jumping into the studio right after extensive touring didn’t solve their ongoing issues. “We went into rehearsal to make a second record, and all the personal differences that we had swept under the rug when we were touring suddenly came up,” Wilk revealed. The band dropped the studio, feeling as if the space itself was uninspiring. De la Rocha added, “we weren’t going to go in and play in a studio that just had no environment whatsoever. You get in some of those places, and it’s like you’re walking into a dentist’s office.” RATM took a break, took a breath, and reassembled at Cole Rehearsal Studios in Los Angeles. When asked about the hold-up, Tom Morello added that “trying to find the right combination of our very diverse influences that would make a record that we were all happy with” turned out to be “a long process.” From the start, this album displayed meaningful collaboration beyond disagreement, which rarely comes easy.

Rap is an excellent tool for getting as much of your message in a song as possible, and lead singer De la Rocha raps with linguistic skill and wit. He’s abrupt, self-assured, and explosively clear. His delivery encourages audience unity, like a revolutionary choir. The songwriting on Evil Empire isn’t open to interpretation or vague enough to land on any campaign. Instead, it is explicitly radical and rooted in the left. The theme of revolution is announced in the very first sentence of the album. “Yeah, people come, up,” De la Rocha says in a call out to the oppressed on “People of the Sun.” The song was written about the Zapatistas, a group fighting for the land and life of indigenous people in Mexico, against NAFTA, Capitalism, and Neoliberalism. “Minds attacked and overseen/Now crawl amidst the ruins of this empty dream,” De la Rocha continues. In “Bulls on Parade,” the band confronts the U.S. military as well as the corporate footmen that back it, with lyrics like “weapons, not food, not homes, not shoes, not need, just feed the war cannibal-animal,” and “what we don’t know keeps the contracts alive and movin’.”

This first track sets up another theme on the album: the endurance needed to rebound when fighting for justice. “It’s coming back around again,” De la Rocha shouts at the top of the chorus. The theme comes up again in “Year of tha Boomerang,” with lyrics about colonialism and oppression, and in “Tire Me,” a track that celebrates the death of Richard Nixon and attempts to bring some reality back to the mess his eulogies tried to cover up. One thing people actively fighting for justice often face is burnout, and coming back around is an art. On Evil Empire, RATM gave us a time and place and descriptive visuals that guide us through history. Not only do they write meaning into their lyrics, but they also provide us with reason.

The difference between their first album and this one is that here, they sound much more cohesive even after the tension among the band members. The arrangements don’t fight with De la Rocha’s voice—it fights for it, alongside it. The music is quick, explosive, and insistent, but it gives him the space to clearly say what he wants to say. There is an apparent momentum in the music that one can feel physically. It is a powerful combination of political lyrics with an audible sense of urgency. Morello turns the guitar into a turntable in “Bulls on Parade” by using two pickups and rubbing his hands on the strings, stating that he wanted a “menacing” sound. With elements of hip-hop, funk, rock, and metal, RATM perfected their technique on Evil Empire, making it impossible not to move your mind and body after hitting play.

Some of the most powerful aspects of this album aren’t just in the songs; they’re in the stories, actions, and even in the album booklet. The band participated in the Radio Free Los Angeles performance that brought activists and artists from many backgrounds under the banner of voting and justice and their refusal to back down to NBC officials over their performance. The Evil Empire CD booklet had a reading list for radicals with everyone from Karl Marx to James Baldwin. RATM acted in and pulled from culture, engaging in theory and praxis. This album is evidence of their understanding that big change comes from small changes and working together as a whole. In her book about connection and social justice, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, Adrienne Maree Brown writes about collaboration in that “there is an art to flocking: staying separate enough not to crowd each other, aligned enough to maintain a shared direction, and cohesive enough to always move towards each other.” Rage Against the Machine seems to have done this not only on Evil Empire but in their ability to bring their band together and tour for massive audiences twenty-six years later. It’s all coming back around again.

Listen to Evil Empire: