Slipknot’s Jim Root says message of Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Killing In The Name’ “seems backwards to me”

nme.com:

Slipknot guitarist Jim Root has criticised the “backwards” message of Rage Against The Machine‘s classic protest song ‘Killing In The Name’.The explicit, politically-charged single was released back in 1992, and features on RATM’s self-titled debut album.

It was written about the abuses of power and issues within US society.Back in 2020, guitarist Tom Morello said that the track’s “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me” chant remains a “universal sentiment” despite its simplicity.

He also responded to the line being shouted at police in Portland in the wake of George Floyd’s death. “Well that’s what it’s for!” Morello tweeted.In a recent interview with Music Radar, Root offered his opinion on ‘Killing In The Name’ while speaking about the lyrical themes of Slipknot’s forthcoming seventh album ‘The End, So Far’.He told the outlet that the contents of the record – the follow-up to 2019’s ‘We Are Not Your Kind’ – had been affected by the “weird cultural moment” that the world finds itself in currently.“Everything is so bizarre and so bananas, I don’t even know what’s going on with the world right now,” Root explained. “I couldn’t even tell you what is going on with the culture, because, being locked up for two years, and then you come out and everything’s upside down, it’s really… I don’t get it.”He continued: “I thought rock ‘n’ roll, and punk and metal, and all that stuff was meant to be anti-establishment and against the man, and now it seems more and more like, ‘Obey!’ and do as you’re told sorta shit, and that seems backwards to me.“I don’t know if I am the only one that feels that way.

I haven’t really talked to anyone in the band about it, ’cause we’re just trying to get through these tours, through the protocol and.