Rage Within the Machine

Many consider Atari Teenage Riot to be the creators of a style called Digital Hardcore. In fact, the label is Digital Hardcore Records (DHR for short).*

"I'm confused!" you say, "I've got hardcore and speed and thrash and rapcore...now I've got another genre to worry about??

Don't sweat it; it's actually pretty simple. Picture some of the heaviest, angriest music you know. Now make it completely digital and electronic-sounding. Lots of samples, video-game noises, and the heaviest keyboard work you can imagine.

If Atari Teenage Riot were part of the mainstream, they'd be the Anti-Bjork.

This album was a moderate favorite of mine, and grew on me quickly, becoming one of my all-time favorite heavy albums. I first heard them on the Spawn soundtrack doing a song with Slayer (No Remorse - I Wanna Die). Lead singer Alec Empire is backed up with a female vocalist who sounds even younger and louder than Saffron, lead singer of Republica. Both of ATR's vocalists go from angry speech to flat-out screaming in a way that reminds me of the sneering sensibilities of punk. The topics are also the same as the mohawk movement, from Destroy 2000 Years of Culture to P.R.E.S.S., a rant about the media. From start to finish, this album is digitally-mastered anarchy. Deutschland (Has Gotta Die!) is rumoured to have emerged as a retaliatory attack on Germany after the band were arrested for busting up a rave over there in a big way, inciting violence among the ecstasy-mellowed crowd.

If Rage Against the Machine talks the talk, ATR walks the walk. Heavy guitars and drumbeats are like a bootheel to the face. The videogame samples only add to the mayhem (I particularly love the ones in Delete Yourself), and are guaranteed to give a Gen-Xer flashbacks to the Donkey-Kong days. I can't help but chuckle at the longest of them, a snippet from the theme to Mappy...

I think the best way to give you an idea of the feel of the music is to point out that the liner notes have more exclamation points than e e cummings' secret stash. Atari Teenage Riot bear the same politically-charged lyrics as Rage Against the Machine--only ATR's embrace of all things digital makes them "Rage From Within the Machine"

If you like techno because your aerobic instructor has that neat Bee Gees remix, better steer clear of this one. If you're a metal purist that hates it when your Danzig or Slayer take on Rob Zombie overtones, again avoid this. But if you're ready for something new and you used to love punk when it was around, you can't go wrong here. If you're still a headbanger, but you get tired of watching Metallica sell out and Iron Maiden rotate its lineup, I again have to recommend giving Atari Teenage Riot a spin.


*They're produced on the Beastie Boys' "Grand Royal" label, which is odd because that puts them alongside Luscious Jackson and ATR is just about everything that Luscious Jackson isn't.