Evil Empire (album)

For the phrase used by U.S. president Ronald Reagan to describe the U.S.S.R., see Evil Empire speech. For other uses, see Evil empire (disambiguation).
Evil Empire
Cover illustration derived from Crimebuster with a young boy in a superhero outfit, smiling
Studio album by
Rage Against the Machine
ReleasedApril 16, 1996 (1996-04-16)
RecordedNovember–December 1995[1]
StudioCole Rehearsal (Los Angeles)
Genre
Length46:37
LabelEpic
ProducerBrendan O'Brien
Rage Against the Machine chronology
Rage Against the Machine
(1992) 		Evil Empire
(1996) 		Live & Rare
(1998)
Singles from Evil Empire
  1. "Bulls on Parade"
    Released: February 9, 1996
  2. "People of the Sun"
    Released: August 22, 1996
  3. "Vietnow"
    Released: October 10, 1997

Evil Empire is the second studio album by the American rock band Rage Against the Machine, released on April 16, 1996, by Epic Records. It debuted at number 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart with first week sales of 249,000 copies, and the song "Tire Me" won a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance; "Bulls on Parade" and "People of the Sun" were nominated for Grammys for Best Hard Rock Performance. On May 24, 2000, the album was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.[5]

The album's title is a reference to a term used in the early 1980s by President Ronald Reagan and many American conservatives to describe the Soviet Union.[6]

  1. ^ MTV News Staff (January 22, 1996). "Evil Empire Due From Rage Against The Machine". MTV. Archived from the original on August 18, 2022. Retrieved 2023-01-24.
  2. ^ Lipkin, Gregg (November 18, 2009). "Masters of the Form: Rage Against the Machine 1996 – Evil Empire". PopMatters. Retrieved August 13, 2016.
  3. ^ Mike Lawrence (2014-02-24). "The 25 Best Alternative Metal Albums". Metal Descent. Archived from the original on 2017-02-04.
  4. ^ "5 Essential Nu-Metal Albums: How Slipknot, Korn, Deftones & Others Showcased Adolescent Rage with a Dramatic Flair".
  5. ^ RIAA RIAA Certification search results Archived June 26, 2007, at the Wayback Machine Note: type "Evil Empire" (without quotation marks) in field "Title:"
  6. ^ Staff report (May 3, 1996). Rage Builds "Evil Empire" MTV