After Rage, Harmony

Rage Against The Machine's most recognizable part dreadlocked singer Zack de la Rocha was also its most annoying. Instead of making like a good front man and lifting the band with his kinetic presence, de la Rocha screeched radical political slogans over the group's underappreciated guitarist and thunder-clap rhythm section. His four albums with Rage proved one thing: it is hard to find a rhyme for Zapatista. When de la Rocha quit the band in 2000, guitarist Tom Morello used the opportunity to marry up. He called former Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell one of the signature voices of grunge and pitched him on joining Rage's remains. Cornell accepted. They renamed the group Audioslave, and that's the way they became rock's Brady Bunch.

Audioslave's self-titled debut (out Nov. 19) is a full-on rocker that mixes Rage's heavy-metal funk with Cornell's Zeppelin wail and tortured lyrics. It tests the bass on your stereo and it's catchy too. But the main draw is two distinct platinum parts coming together in mid-career. Cornell, who had a solo act going when he fielded Morello's call, did not want to join a political band. "Before we played music together we had the politics conversation," says Cornell. "I said I would take no specific focus lyrically before I started writing and that the odds were when I was done, none of it was going to be politically motivated." Morello, a self-described "fighter for social justice" who packs a political-science degree from Harvard, accepted. "I've found other outlets for fighting the power," he says.

In early rehearsals, the Rage musicians Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk laid down what Cornell calls "riff-based, very heavy, no-brainer 'we can all do this' stuff." Then as a test, Cornell added a melodic four-chord bridge to the song Light My Way. "When nobody freaked out, I knew we were a band." Knowing you're a band and convincing listeners are two different things. It's odd hearing Cornell, one of the few rock singers who can belt it out high and clear, fight through Morello's machine-gun fuzz on Cochise. And when Cornell goes mellow on Hypnotize, you just presume Morello would rather be fret dancing. But after a few spins, the vestigial sounds of Audioslave's previous selves melt away, and what's left is a big, funky record full of wounded-love songs.

When Audioslave hits the road next year, the group will not play Rage or Soundgarden songs. "We're not a country-fair revue," says Morello, chuckling. "We're a new band, a new thing. And by God, we will rawwwwk!"