Rage Against the Machine fights on with their fourth CD, Renegades, a skillfully generated compilation of covers that encapsulates the various influential pioneers whom Rage pays homage to and considers musical renegades.

This CD is more than just your average collection of covers. Rage takes every song on the album to a whole new level. With its very own rap-metal style, Rage turns once-forgotten classics into retroactive bombtracks.

Rage starts off the action with the Eric B. and Rakim hip-hop masterpiece "Microphone Fiend." A vicious guitar riff and the funky word play of Zack de la Rocha enables Rage to live up to the high standard this song demands.

Rage also turned to Cypress Hill and EPMD for some hip-hop influence. In terms of diversity, Rage spruces up the CD with classic rock covers of the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man," Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" and Bruce Springsteen's "The Ghost of Tom Joad."

Although the latter two renditions are a little drab, they illustrate the band's ability to take an already well-established song to a new level once thought unattainable. Most bands cover songs the way they're originally recorded, but Rage successfully improves on what was already thought to be flawless with fearless ambition.

"Renegades of Funk," originally done by Afrika Bambaataa, is a catchy anthem brilliantly redone. This track has a video and for good reason — it's without a doubt the best on the CD.

"Pistol Grip Pump," an early '80s punk song, is redone with two solid beats, turning this version into a hypnotic jam lit up by a snake-like rendition of the lyrics.

The final two tracks on the CD are live recordings the band did during its last shows together. According to Rolling Stone magazine, the band put Renegades together in less than three weeks with the help of producer Rick Rubin. In that short time, Rage amazingly scored another winning album, but at the cost of sacrificing some of their credibility. Rage fans will enjoy Renegades, but if Zack de la Roche is seriously going into a solo career and this is the last Rage CD, then we were a little shortchanged.

Renegades, unlike Rage's other albums, is not a front-to-back hardcore extravaganza that will leave your ears ringing. For some this might be a welcome change, but for myself and other long-time fans this leaves us wondering, why? Why are only some of the songs tweaked for intensity? Why did they do a cover album anyway? And why did they make this their last album when we know they're capable of so much more?