Evil Empire

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Lore & Background

The title came from a speech by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, where he addressed the Soviet Union as the "evil empire." The band felt that tag could easily be used to describe the U.S., given the atrocities committed by the U.S. in the latter half of the 20th century. Before a performance of "Without a Face" on May 27, 1996, Zack de la Rocha said: "It seems as if soon as the... the wall in Germany fell, that the US government was busy building another one on the border between the US and Mexico. Since 1986, as a result of a lot of the hate talk and hysteria that the government of the United States has been speaking, 1,500 bodies have been found on the border. We wrote this song in response to it." The track "Year of tha Boomerang" had previously been included in the film Higher Learning, though its title was written as "Year of the Boomerang" on the packaging of the film's soundtrack and the promotional single.

In Their Own Story

The cover of the album features an altered version of a painting of the 1940s–1950s comic book hero Crimebuster done by Mel Ramos. The emblem on the boy's costume was changed from a "c" to a lowercase "e", the caption "Crime Buster" changed to the album's title, and the color of the star in the background changed. The boy on the cover was author and businessman Ari Meisel when he was 11 years old. Meisel told Kerrang! that the original painting was a birthday present from Ramos. The band explained the image: "Considering if you look very closely at the boy's face, he symbolizes the power structure in the U.S.—and if you look at him, he's smiling as if he's in control—but if you look deeper into his face, you see that he's afraid, because he knows what's coming. He knows that poor people in the U.S. are not going to suffer in the way that they are suffering without taking action." Additional artwork was created by Barbara Kruger, some of which appears in the video for "Bulls on Parade."

Reader's Guide

In 1995, the band sent a free 7″ record to everyone who signed up for the fan club promoted in the liner notes of their debut. It came in a plain cardboard-colored fold-out with a black-and-white American flag on the cover alongside the band's name and "Evil Empire" in capital letters. The A-side was a reissue of the Evening Session-version of "Bombtrack" first broadcast on June 7, 1993 (listed as "Bombtrack (Live on the BBC)"), and the B-side was a then-unreleased cover of N.W.A's "Fuck tha Police" recorded live on August 13, 1995, at a benefit concert for Mumia Abu-Jamal at the Capitol Ballroom in Washington, D.C. The album's CD booklet includes 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, The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell, Guerrilla Warfare by Che Guevara, Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton, Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, and Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, among others.

Did You Know?

• The boy on the album cover is the son of the band's art director, not Mel Ramos; the original painting was a birthday present from the artist.
• The band sent a free 7″ record to fan club members in 1996 as both an apology and a promotion, featuring a live cover of N.W.A's "Fuck tha Police."
• The album's CD booklet includes a photograph of a stack of political and philosophical books, ranging from The Anarchist Cookbook to Manufacturing Consent.
• "Year of tha Boomerang" was previously included in the film Higher Learning, but its title was written as "Year of the Boomerang" on the soundtrack packaging.
• Before a 1996 performance of "Without a Face," Zack de la Rocha stated that 1,500 bodies had been found on the US-Mexico border since 1986.

Release and Commercial Performance

Released on April 16, 1996, by Epic Records, Evil Empire debuted at number 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart with first week sales of 249,000 copies. 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.

Political Themes and Title Origin

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. According to MTV News, the title came from Reagan's epithet, which the band felt could just as easily apply to the United States. Before the May 27, 1996, performance of "Without a Face," Zack de la Rocha cited 1,500 bodies found on the border since 1986 as a result of government hate talk and hysteria, saying the song was written in response to it. "Year of tha Boomerang" had previously been included in the film Higher Learning, though its title was written as "Year of the Boomerang" on the packaging of the film's soundtrack and the promotional single.

Visual Art and Packaging Details

The cover features an altered version of a painting of the 1940s–1950s comic book hero Crimebuster done by Mel Ramos, with the emblem changed from a "c" to a lowercase "e", the caption changed to the album's title, and the star's color changed. The boy on the cover was author and businessman Ari Meisel when he was 11 years old. The band described the image as ironic, with the boy smiling as if in control but afraid because he knows poor people will take action. Additional artwork was created by Barbara Kruger, appearing in the video for "Bulls on Parade." The CD booklet includes a picture of a pile of political and philosophical books, including titles by Howard Zinn, Karl Marx, James Joyce, William Powell, Che Guevara, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, Frantz Fanon, Arthur Koestler, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Dalton Trumbo, Alexander Berkman, John Steinbeck, Saul D. Alinsky, George Jackson, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Ellison, and James Baldwin.

Critical Reception and Lasting Influence

Rolling Stone affirmed that "this music isn't supposed to be fun," describing the band's sound as dogmatic and virtually sexless. AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine cited the band as "lacking the dexterity to fully execute their metal/hip-hop fusion," concluding that the album "succeeds only on the level of a sonic assault." Walter Schreifels of Quicksand included the album on his list of the ten best in the post-hardcore genre, noting it exposed a more general audience to hardcore more than the debut. Andrew Flory and John Covach declared the album cemented the band as "an important force in the rap-rock style." In 2024, Loudwire staff elected it as the best hard rock album of 1996.

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