Ramallah‘s ‘Kill A Celebrity’ is definitely one of the more interesting releases I’ve listened to lately. I’ve been racking my brains for ages, but I can’t remember another record to combine brutal hardcore, cutting lyrics, occasionally nu-metal-esque sounds and piano ditties into a single release. Perhaps it’s best I don’t.
Rob Lind is well renowned amongst hardcore and metal fans for producing stuff of unnerving quality and considering he played absolutely everything on this album bar the drums and one or two piano parts, this is some achievement. He’s obviously joined by a full band for live excursions, but listening to this knowing its asexual parentage is a weird feeling. I think the most striking thing about this CD is the sheer progression it goes through from start to finish; final track ‘Bye bye’ is, at times, a melodic rock effort that’s light-years away from the uncompromising barrage launched against your ears at other points in the record; a variety which you then take time to remind yourself is the product of one mind.
Comparing this against Thorp Records’ other releases would be a little pointless as it handles so many more musical styles than most of them and is obviously widely influenced both musically and politically. It’s hard to feel like a neutral when you’re told “I want to cut the brakes on every SUV in the world” against a backdrop of a huge wall of guitar; the feeling of inclusivity matched with the raw guts evident in the lyrics dominated by social loathing and (flawed but) critically accurate observations. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that ‘Heart Full Of Love’ is one of the best hardcore songs I’ve heard in quite a while.
Whilst the occasional nu-metal influenced guitar riff is going to make a few cringe, and the industrial stylings may not be to everyone’s taste, they’re not overbearing and are hugely outweighed by the aggression shown in the hardcore which dominates most of the record. The record however, would benefit from a few more quicker songs and a little more tempo variation, just so spice things up. Not universally recommended but if you’re heavily into this sort of thing then you could well do to add another 0.5 to the score as it’s really not bad.
www.myspace.com/ramallah
www.thorprecords.com/bands/ramallah.php
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