Armed with just a warped and dirty sounding keyboard and his brazen vocals, de la Rocha teams up with former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore to whip up a dissonant mix of politically charged scuzz rock, noisy blues, and swaggering hip-hop.
And rather than just rap, the boy shows he can sing too, coming off like a less whiney Perry Farrell on
Ocean View
and
Last Letter
, and a demented story teller on the title track and militant highlight,
If You Fear Dying
.
Lyrically de la Rocha is more poignant than the blatant and reactionary Rage approach coming up with lines like "I'm in with the spirit of Ali Toure as I target more heads than a priest on Ash Wednesday".
Meanwhile, Theodore is a flailing animal and rides the songs to that thrilling point where they're about to fall apart, but never do. There's only two of them but they make a fearsome racket.
Scott Kara