Rage Against The Machine have been in hiatus since 2011, but a few hours ago, the band launched a countdown clock dubbed “Prophets of Rage” here. The clock is ticking away the seconds until it expires on the 1st of June (when the website is not crashing due to high volumes of traffic).

Accompanying the clock is an image of a broken slash through a circle with silhouettes of five people all extending their arms and clenched fists with the hashtag #takethepowerback underneath the timer (and in case you did not know, that is the name of a song on their debut album which was released in 1992).

Apparently when you enter your email address onto the site, you’ll receive an email labeled “Clear the Way” with in image inside reading “Clear the way for the prophets of rage” (which is a line from the Public Enemy song “Prophets of Rage.”).

Chuck D (the Public Enemy front man) posted a video of Rage Against the Machine performing “Bulls on Parade” live in 2010 to his Twitter page, which suggests that Public Enemy might be involved, too. The campaign is active far beyond the Internet though, cryptic promotional flyers like the one in the picture below have also started surfacing all over Los Angeles in the USA.

I was holding thumbs that it’s new music or an announcement that they’re touring again, because I really do want to see them live before I kick the bucket. Just imagine seeing Rage Against the Machine live at Oppikoppi and you’ll agree with me.

It turns out, this is not be a full-blown Rage Against the Machine reunion as some originally thought, but the announcement of a new supergroup called “Prophets of Rage” which features three members of the hard-rock outfit: guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford, and drummer Brad Wilk. They’re joined by a pair of MCs: Chuck D of Public Enemy and Cypress Hill’s B-Real. Rage Against the Machine vocalist Zack de la Rocha is not involved. (So it’s basically Audioslave all over again).

Prophets of Rage will make their debut at the Hollywood Palladium on the 3rd of June, where they will perform songs from Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, and Cypress Hill. A summer USA tour is also being “considered”.

Watch this space for regular updates in the Music category on Running Wolf’s Rant.