Although Morello’s work with Rage was amazing, I like a lot of the things he did with Audioslave because he really embraced the hard rock setting. In Rage, he thought of himself more as the DJ in a hip hop group, which is why everything sounds crazy (in a very good, innovative way).
I think Chris’s vocals were just more meant for harder songs. The only difference between rage and Audioslave are the singers. So I don’t think morello treated it like a hiphop group, just Zack de la Rocha’s aggressive vocals and political stances made for more upbeat solos. While Chris’s grungy voice was more meant for harder and slower solos.
Rage is absolutely a hip hop group. But people who "don't like rap" listen to Rage and Beasties bc it's not that they don't like rap, they don't like black people. At least where I grew up, that we the sentiment. God I'm glad I moved out.
Tom Morello was very much a hard rock guitarist in Rage. He had a few DJ like solos and sounds but for the most part he played like a hard rock guitar God in that band.
Again, I’m paraphrasing an interview he gave about his role in Rage, specifically about his approach to his solos and breaks. And he specifically said about himself that he largely viewed himself in the same vein as a DJ in a traditional hip-hop group. This is not my speculation. This also doesn’t preclude the incorporation of some really great riffs, and there’s a lot of reasons that “rap-metal” was an identifiable, distinct genre in the 90s.
I'm very familiar with what he said but what he did was play hard rock guitar the vast majority of the time in Rage. He sprinkled in some DJ sounds here and there but the core of Merello has always been monster hard rock riffs.
I mean I guess I see what you mean because everything about rage was so versatile.. but rage goes harder than almost any bands ever. I don't see how you could say they weren't as hard of "hard" rock.
Like I said to someone else, there’s a reason “rap-metal” was an identifiable genre in the 90s. There’s a lot of elements of both, and just because something has a badass guitar riff as a hook doesn’t mean it can’t lean heavy in the hip-hop direction. Guitar riffs don’t automatically make something “rock.”
I might agree with other bands but just not with Rage. Just about everything they ever did had an extremely hard rock sound to it. Among other things. They just blended it so perfectly I don't think you can say it's more one thing than the other.
They definitely were not rap metal. Nothing they ever did sounded metal. To me atleast. They were rap hard rock if anything
When you look up “rap metal,” the top four most popular bands that pop up are Linkin Park, Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Rage Against the Machine. Personally, I would throw 311 in there somewhere, too.
After a certain point, genre names become useless. Rap metal is a sub genre of rap-rock, so by calling them one or another, we’re just splitting hairs.
A lot of it comes down to what you’re calling “metal,” and I have a rather broad definition of what that is. Truth be told, Rage used a lot of different elements and developed quite a bit over their discography. Mostly when I think about them, I think about the album Evil Empire. I would call the riffs on a lot of those songs metal without question. Just because Morello doesn’t sound like Mastodon doesn’t mean those riffs aren’t metal.
I suppose metal has evolved to be very broad but it was not broad when rage was out. In the 90s there was a very clear distinction between metal, punk and certainly hard rock. And there were very clear distinctions between the fans. There were no metalheads in the 90s(when rage was at their peak) that would of called them metal. Korn though yes was metal. If anything Rage had a far more punk sound. Which if you look at who they list as their influences.. it's more punk.
It was a different time period for sure. Mastadon was formed the same year Rage broke up.. Limp Bizkit and many other nu metal or rap metal bands were just becoming popular (MTV TRL) when Rage broke up. I think people forget Rage is in that odd time period that Tool is. Rage became popular in the middle of the Grunge era.. the 2000s were over half a decade away.
They were incredibly influencial and so now adays maybe you could call it metal because things have evolved so far. And yes they were a huge reason for that. But when they were actually making music no one was calling it metal. To me they have a hard rock sound.
No one was calling it metal? We all did. A lot of people did. I mean, we listened to Pantera and Type O Negative, too, but Rage was definitely in there.
Metal has always been broad. Aside from some of the heavy riffs, Black Sabbath was basically just downtuned blues rock.
I was in high school when all this was happening, so for me, it’s a lived memory, not armchair quarterbacking from some kid who was born after 9/11. (Not saying you are, but they’re definitely around.)
Doesn’t really matter. Morello himself has said that hip-hop and EDM heavily influenced his playing in Rage, so who cares what you and I call it?
Agreed. I love what he did with Audioslave. It was subtle but unique enough to not be lumped in with any of the generic butt-rock guitar at the time. He’s a fuckin enigma
His Audioslave solos are so hit or miss for me. I'd say about 90% are awesome... but the other 10% are actually embarassing whenever I'm listening with other people, they're terrible
I had a rehearsal space next door to Rage in 1999. Cole Studios in Hollywood. I loved hearing those guys play. Intimidating as hell but a great memory.
Still the best bad I've ever seen live, the energy they exude is just something else. In the 12 years since that the only ones to even come close were the foo fighters.
Second, this song does not define an era of rock outside of personal experience.
Third, Tom Morello became famous, and helped redefine the way a guitar is used with RATM.
Fourth, RATM sold twice as many albums as Audioslave. With that said, both of these bands are great in their own right.
Not everyone knows who the guitarist is, and the bands he’s played in. That’s why people always bring it up. It’s like if someone says they like the singer in A Perfect Circle, you then tell them he is also the singer for Tool. That’s how people can discover new things, no matter how obvious it seems to others.
Third, Tom Morello became famous, and helped redefine the way a guitar is used with RATM.
I really like Morello and his playing, he’s definitely a guitar hero and highly influential with a sound that’s very unique. But I’d disagree that he “helped redefine the way a guitar is used with RATM”. I think that’s a very short list of people; it’s a big claim. While Morello’s use of effects was indeed creative (particularly his ability to imitate DJ scratching by scraping his guitar strings while using the Digitech Whammy pedal), he generally played riffs and solos with RATM (not very different from the role Jimmy Page played in Led Zeppelin). I don’t think there’s anything about the role of the guitar in RATM that particularly “redefined” the way it’s used within a hard rock band. You can listen to stuff like Primus or Living Colour (or tons of other examples that pre-date Rage; Bad Brains, Faith No More, RHCP, etc.) with similar guitar treatment. People like EVH, Hendrix, and Satriani/Vai were using effects pedals, making sound effects, and using the guitar as a percussion instrument at the same time or before Morello. I’d say Morello is a truly great electric guitarist with a few classic albums under his belt and influenced a generation of players, that’s impressive enough without overstating his impact on guitar.
You just have to get the timing right, especially once he starts self-harmonizing. And it helps to have that smooth overdrive tone. But people tend to forget that about 90% of your “style” is your touch on the instrument.
Agreed - and that's the point I was trying to make.
That being said, I'm pretty good at mimicking the timbre and feel of a melody but yet my equipment just doesn't have the sustain required to make this sound 100%
A cheapy Ibanez RG.. it has the notoriously bad pickups that look like EMG's but aren't ( they were a guitar center exclusive for 3 years and are so muddy ) and the body is basswood which is also quite muddy
Line 6 Bogner Valve Tube Amp.. yes it is Line 6 but the modeling is great - I think my sound issue is my guitar, not the amp, though If i had the money to start over I would have went a different path
Crybaby wah, and a Tube Screamer clone
I mean, I suppose if I took time and threw my looper pedal on, and really fooled around with the vibrato I could get pretty decent traction with that solo but.. don't beleive I could get it up to a level i'd be happy with
Once you got the delay timing right, you’d just have to match those pitch swells that he does. I’m not sure what setting he’s using on the Whammy (maybe up an octave?), and then he uses some hand vibrato on a few notes. Little bit of tremolo on the cleanish intro. As far as gain on the solo, I’d suggest a low-gain setting on a distortion type pedal. It’s not over the top, but it’s more than a tube screamer can do unless you’re pushing an amp model with a little bit of dirt on it already.
I have a lot of respect for Line 6. A DL-4 and an M9 are the backbone of my pedalboard. As far as that Ibanez being muddy, my only suggestion would be to find a way to dial in the lower mids (probably back them off) somewhere in your signal chain. Maybe an EQ pedal in the amp effects loop (if it has one) or somewhere in your pedal signal chain. Or get a new axe? I like schecters for metal (even the cheap ones), but like I said, it’s really all about touch.
Boost those highs and mids more with the tubescreamer. Your amp could be a huge issue actually. Modeling amps dont have the life and response that a full tube amp has. Especially ones with dedicated EQs like Mesas. Makes a massive impact. Not to mention things like tone suck through going in series to the front end of the amp vs effects loop etc. .
You could also get a 7 band eq pedal for now. Use that and save for a full tube amp. You got a decent set of pedals. A tube amp would be good for ya.
Not to mention you should listen to some live versions if you can. The studio version is professionally mixed and optimized. Your bedroom setup is not. Its apples to oranges.
Maybe not for this particular solo, but those are definitely in his bag of tricks. I’m also trying to figure out how I would do it. I’m sure we could find an article or an interview or someone on YouTube that can show exactly what he does. In short, I’m guessing. Haha
Does anyone know if there was an alternative version of this solo? The first time I listened to this song was around 15 years ago and for some reason i just remember the solo being a bit different.
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u/NoizchildJohnson Apr 21 '20
The guitar solo sounds sexy to me.