Renegades is RATM's only album not to be accompanied by a supporting tour. Shortly after the release of the album, three of the four band members (minus vocalist Zack de la Rocha) formed a new band, Audioslave, with former Soundgarden vocalist/guitarist Chris Cornell. RATM did, however, release the live albumLive at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in 2003, consisting of their final two concerts before their initial break-up.
The album achieved platinum status a little over a month after its initial release. The album cover is a take on Robert Indiana's Love artwork series.[2]
Renegades received positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 78 based on 26 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[3]AllMusic critic John Bush wrote that the record "works well with just a bare few exceptions, in part because Rage Against the Machine is both smart enough to change very little and talented enough to make the songs its own."[4]Alternative Press described the record as "a tour through three decades of sonic recalcitrance" and "the genome map of seditious sound".[5]Entertainment Weekly's Rob Brunner described the record's sound as "a remarkably diverse, if not exactly surprising, mix of heavy rock, hip hop and protest music", while remarking that it "would still be a raging success even if this disc does nothing but introduce a new generation to the joys of Bob Dylan and Minor Threat."[6]
On Renegades, Mojo has remarked: "This crisp, Rick Rubin-produced outing packs away a machine that was well-oiled to the last."[8] Kitty Empire of NME labeled the record as "a brilliant archaeology" and "a sonic history lesson".[9]Rolling Stone critic Tom Moon believed that the band executed "diverse tracks" such as Bruce Springsteen's "The Ghost of Tom Joad", the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man", Afrika Bambaataa's "Renegades of Funk" and Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" with "the roaring, fearless spirit that’s been missing in action since these songs were new",[1] while Select regarded it as the band's "most satisfying record since their debut".[10]
"How I Could Just Kill a Man" (Live, featuring B-Real and Sen Dog)
Freese, Reyes, Muggerud
Cypress Hill (1991)
4:30
Best Buy limited edition
Limited edition albums sold at Best Buy contained a bonus disc with live recordings of "People of the Sun" and "No Shelter". The songs were later released as part of Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in 2003, as was "Kick Out the Jams (live)".
Personnel
Rage Against the Machine – co-producer, art direction
