But whether you were a follower or a nonbeliever, there was no denying the never-say-die conviction with which singer Zack de la Rocha carried himself onstage, or that guitarist Tom Morello, emulating turntablists with his toggle switch and whammy pedal, whipped out the first new set of tricks by... 

 The group sticks to its formula on Evil Empire, to wearying effect. Still, “Bulls on Parade” and “Year of the Boomerang” wrings a couple of minor punk-funk miracles out of Rage’s self-imposed clichédom. The sinister and provocative boy-superhero cover art is priceless because the b... 

 The Battle of Los Angeles was the last stand for the street fightin’ quartet. But wouldn’t you know, this is also when they decided to cut the b.s. and drop a bona fide killer worthy of the hard-rock canon. Rage’s demise was publicly precipitated by a beef between the singer and the bass pl... 

 Released postbreakup, Renegades is a covers record. Some of the choices seem almost laughably obvious–“Street Fighting Man” and “Kick Out the Jams” in particular. Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad” and Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm” weren’t great ideas, but there is a magic ...