Ramallah

Kill a Celebrity

BY Greg PrattPublished Dec 1, 2005

Ramallah are best known as the side project of two dudes from hardcore band Blood for Blood, including Rob "White Trash” Lind, the guy who propels this particular beast forth. And Ramallah are quite good as far as modern heavy hardcore goes. With a sound that is more old school NYHC, mixed with some welcome experimentation, Ramallah manage to create atmosphere on this album, something most bands of similar nature fail to do — although the experimentation sometimes goes overboard, such as when they suddenly turn into a pop-punk band for a song. I like the lyrics, which address modern societal and political problems in a base and harsh nature. They’re good, although perhaps nowhere near as controversial as Lind seems to think they’ll be; his comments in the liner notes seem to hint at some kind of firestorm coming his way once these revelatory scripts see print. But the guy obviously gives a shit, which comes across here, through this simplistic yet satisfying and sincere hardcore. With a few melodic songs on here, the few hardcore bands that have cracked through to the mainstream come to mind (Life of Agony, Biohazard). And, apparently, Ramallah have seven "key markets,” according to the record label, which makes me think they’re trying to crack through in a pretty big way.
(Thorp!)

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