Rage Against The Machine play some sweet riffs, and this song is a good example of that. We're going to break the song down into small segments. This will help you to practice the song in small chunks, riff by riff:

Intro Riffs:

The intro involves palm muting (downstrokes only) with nearly all notes from the E Pentatonic Minor scale. This is a great practice exercise for palm muting, and it sounds cool. Tom Morello cycles through 3 small variations of the same riff until the end of the intro:

Intro Riff 1 - Palm mute through the notes until the end of the riff, which is this open G note. Get this riff right first, and you'll see that the others are very similar, just differing on the last few notes.

Intro Riff 2 - Very similar to the previous riff, the difference is only the last 3 notes: B - G - F#. From here he goes straight into the next riff variation without any break in flow.

Intro Riff 3 - Exactly the same as Riff 1 above, except the last G note. This time, don't let it ring out - add a quick trill afterwards with the A note. That means just hammer / pull off quickly a couple of times.

Chorus Riff:

Chorus Riff 1 - This chunky riff is easier than the intro. It uses the F# Pentatonic scale, that's the same scale as the intro just 2 frets up. It's slower, short, and uses normal picking. Just keep repeating the same riff after these 3 chords appear:

C#5 - C5 - B5

These are types of powerchord, similar to normal powerchords - but including an extra bass note.

Verse Riff:

Verse Riff - Uses the F# Blues scale. It's short and repetitive, so is quite good for picking up quickly. Just repeat the whole thing again after every second bend!

Everything in the song just repeats those verse / chorus riffs until the interlude, near the end of the song.

Interlude:

Interlude Riff 1 - A short riff. Build up tension by chugging the low E and powerchords.

Interlude Riff 2 - Love this little riff. It's used as the backing for the guitar solo (which we'll look at separately). It's similar in structure to the main verse riff. It's also short and repetitive, but here you need to use a lot of pull offs.

After the interlude, jump back into the last Chorus Riff again. Then end the song on these 3 powerchords:

B5 - Bb5 - A5