This being today's album is a bizarre coincidence. I hung out in Tom Morello's trailer at Boston Calling for hours yesterday. Tom's bassist is also the lead singer of my girlfriend's dad's band, and he got us artists badges for the festival. I'm going to take this review as a chance to talk about the Boston Calling set. Tom is touring as "Tom Morello" these days, and his set at BC consisted of solo hits, RATM hits, Audioslave hits, and some fantastic covers. Unsurprisingly, the performance was extremely political. The backdrop featured images of black revolutionaries holding pitchforks while running through smoke bombs and fires. Tom railed against I.C.E, Trump, billionares, and landlords as he got the crowd pumped up. Highlights of the show were his cover of Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Our Land", Bruce's "Ghost of Tom Joad", and a medley of Prophet's of Rage songs with Public Enemy's Chuck D. No surprise, the final song was "Killing in the Name Of". This song hasn't lost one bit of its political power, and the crowd was raging. Tom took the time to talk about Harvard's free courses on the constitution, american history, and recognizing dictatorships. Harvard is his alma mater and he was pretty psyched to play this show. He had his bag from "The Coop" with him in the trailer and had a Harvard sweater on. Tom signed a set-list for me, and I got his pick from the show, so I was pretty psyched about that. They also had no interest in any of the stock in the trailer, so I took Tom's Grey Goose, bottled water, avocados, pringles, and Oreos home. Sarah and her dad took just as much stuff. We rode the T home with our pockets full. The self-titled is my favorite RATM album. It goes so hard and is, unfortunuately, just as appropriate in 2025 as it was in 1992. "Killing in the Name Of" is iconic and instantly recognizable the world over. As I said above, this song hasn't lost one bit of its power. "Take the Power Back" has filthy riffs and a filthy bassline. It's so sick. "Settle for Nothing" is a dope breakdown. Usually these songs clash with my "man at desk" daytime persona, but I'm taking a walk while I listen to this so I can let the energy flow. "If we don't action now, we'll settle for nothing later" is hitting pretty hard in 2025. "Know Your Enemy" goes so hard. The riffs are sick, and the vocals hit hard. "wake Up" is so funky, and I love the rapping. Having this and Public Enemy so close together has been a great blast of politically conscious music. 10/10