"With the first record, the question that I asked myself was, �Is anyone going to like this?� says Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello. "And the answer was, �Yeah.� With the second record, it was, �Can we do it again?� And the answer was, �Yes.� With this record, it was, �Are we the best band in the world?� And you know, we�re not done with the record yet. But at this point, I�d say, �Probably.� Audacious? You bet, especially since Rage singer Zack de la Rocha was, at press time, still writing and recording lyrics for that as-yet-untitled third album. But Morello can�t help being confident. I�ve got a tape sitting right here. Fifteen phat jams that I just cannot wait for people to hear," he says. "As soon as there�s vocals on it." Morello credits much of his excitement to increased camaraderie within the band. "We�ve been a band now for seven years or so, and there is a chemistry between the four of us that is priceless," he says. "There�s amazing musicianship on this record, and not from a G.I.T. point of view. I think people will just be floored by the different use of sounds and rhythms on this."

Given the number of bands currently working the hard rock/hip-hop sound Rage pioneered, Morello knows that it will take a lot to knock people out. But he�s totally confident in how his band will face the competition.

"There are a lot of totally weak-ass bands out there who this record will totally dismiss," he says. "Then there are a lot of bands that are obviously influenced in some way by Rage Against the Machine, and I think that this album is going to send them all back to the woodshed. It�s definitely the heaviest Rage record. It�s the funkiest Rage record. And it�s the most adventurous Rage record."