The best song on each Rage Against the Machine album

Rage Against the Machine’s best-known songs helped carry their political message into the mainstream, despite the tension between their radical ideals and signing to a major label. The article argues that choosing the standout track from each album is less straightforward than it sounds, because the band’s short catalogue is dominated by enduring anthems.

The piece singles out “Killing in the Name” as the clearest choice, describing it as the song that introduced Rage to the world in 1992. It followed the LA riots and paired Zack de la Rocha’s lyrics with Tom Morello’s distinctive riff; the article says it is their only song to pass one billion Spotify streams and became a UK Christmas number one. Rage released four studio albums between 1992 and 2000, when de la Rocha left.