Evil Empire (album)
| Evil Empire | ||||
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| Studio album by Rage Against the Machine | ||||
| Released | April 16, 1996 | |||
| Recorded | March, 1995 – February, 1996 | |||
| Studio | Cole Rehearsal Studios, Los Angeles, CA (see Studios) |
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| Genre | Rap metal | |||
| Length | 46:34 | |||
| Label | Epic | |||
| Producer | Brendan O'Brien | |||
| Rage Against the Machine chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Evil Empire | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Chicago Tribune | |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
| Entertainment Weekly | A− |
| Los Angeles Times |  |
| NME | 5/10 |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Spin | 8/10 |
| The Village Voice | A− |
Evil Empire is the second studio album by American rap metal band Rage Against the Machine, released on April 16, 1996 by Epic Records, only four years after the band's debut album. The album's title is taken from the phrase "evil empire", which was used by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and many conservatives in describing the former Soviet Union.Evil Empire debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart. The song "Tire Me" won a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. The tracks "Bulls on Parade" and "People of the Sun" were also both nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Hard Rock Performance. The album was certified 3x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on May 24, 2000.
The cover is the altered image by Mel Ramos and features Ari Meisel as the subject. The caption "EVIL EMPIRE" and letter "e" on the boy's costume were originally "c" and "CRIME BUSTER". Additional themes for the album were created by Barbara Kruger, and some of her artwork appears in the video clip for "Bulls on Parade", which became the second single for the album. As with their debut, five singles were released in total.
The inside of the CD booklet shows a picture of a pile of various political and philosophical books including A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, Capital, Volume I by Karl Marx, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, and The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell.
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