Members of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave are reportedly joining forces with rappers Chuck D of Public Enemy and Cypress Hill's B-Real to launch a new rap metal supergroup called Prophets of Rage.
On Tuesday, news outlets were ripe with speculation upon the mysterious launching of website prophetsofrage.com. The site displayed a countdown timer, ticking away to some heretofore unannounced but assumedly anticipated occurrence. Counting the seconds until June 1, its existence was disclosed by Rage Against the Machine's Twitter page.
Most surmised an official Rage reunion was on the horizon. Some fans even hoped for the outside chance of a revival from Audioslave -- Rage members' previous rock supergroup with Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell, who released three albums from 2002-2006.
However, news came down today regarding the emergence of an all-new project, Prophets of Rage. As with Audioslave, Prophets will feature Rage Against the Machine instrumentalists Tom Morello on guitar, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk.
As the press sought clarification on the new group, an official source close to the band snuffed any hopes of a Rage Against the Machine reunion with original vocalist, Zack de la Rocha:
"This is not a Rage-specific reunion. There's a lot more to it. There are a lot of moving parts, a lot of exciting news to be revealed."
Rage Against the Machine, the pioneering political rap rock juggernaut, was initially active from 1991-2000. They reconvened for a reunion tour in 2007, continuing to play festivals and other high-profile spot dates until 2011.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, bassist Commerford stated that an official Rage reunion was not completely ruled out, though not expected any time soon:
"Anything's possible. We are still a band, and we still might play again. We don't have anything scheduled right now, but you never know what the future will bring."
Below, relive Rage Against the Machine's 1996 hit "Bulls on Parade," from their sophomore album, Evil Empire. The song features guitarist Morello's famed string-scratching guitar solo.
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