Rage Against the Machine

If the burning monk on the cover of Rage Against the Machine's debut wasn't a clear enough indication of their revolutionary ideals, the music's incendiary rap/rock aesthetic and coup-d'etat content screamed to be heard. At the thumping heart of it all: Tom Morello treating his guitar like a turntable, one-half of Audioslave as a rhythm section that could hammer yard-long nails into a concrete wall, and Zach de la Rocha rhyming like one pissed-off protest orator — check out the Orwellian influence on "Sleep Now In the Fire" from 1999's The Battle of Los Angeles. After splitting up in 2000, R.A.T.M. marked their reunion with a blistering performance at the 2007 Coachella festival in California.