Review Summary: Kill A Celebrity is sadly overlooked album of unbridled hate by the mastermind behind Blood For Blood.
Rob Lind is a very angry man. His previous band Blood For Blood was notorious in the Boston scene for violent live shows and their pissed-off brand of hardcore punk. Lind’s lyrics were known for being dark, inflammatory, and often controversial. After the dissolution of Blood For Blood, it seems all Rob Lind did was watch CNN and drink. He resurfaced with Ramallah, a heavy, lumbering ball of hate. After a very raw debut, Ramallah followed up with
Kill A Celebrity, which was released with a clear focus to bludgeon the listener into oblivion, all while spewing hatred in every direction.
This album is
thick. The drums are tight and produced in such a way that it creates a very heavy backbone to the tracks. The guitars are layered buzzsaws, dripping with vehemence. The in-your-face nature of the guitars are in line with Lind’s vocals: Heavy, straightforward, and incredibly violent. Lind’s vocals are mostly an angry talking with little bits of singing from time to time. Rob Lind is a man who has problems with a lot of things going on in society. His lyrics point out the problems he has with the government, patriotism, entertainment, and he is not out to sugarcoat. Lind does not care who he offends if it means that they understand his point. One line from “Drink The Kool-Aid” is a perfect representation:
If they shot Kennedy, imagine what they'll do to you and me
but you still believe all their lies, HA!
That sticker of a flag on your car means nothing
When the sky falls again, your prayers will mean nothing
Now Ramallah is at their best when they are at their heaviest. Songs like the aforementioned “Drink The Kool-Aid,” “Days Of Revenge,” and “The Horror And The Gag” are three songs of perfect unbridled anger and aggression. The album is packed full of songs that make you want to headbang while at the same time forcing you to listen and think about the lyrics, which come at you like blunt force trauma to the brain. There are two songs that really flat, and they are non-coincidentally two of the lightest songs on the album, “A Day In The Life” and “Bye-Bye.” Other than those two, and The Other Side intro which inexplicably shows up as a “reprise” near the end of the album, the album is a tight, angry fireball of disgust with most of the world.
Rob Lind, who was a pretty pissed off guy with Blood For Blood, decided that he needed to up the ante and create something that made his previous outfit seem downright jolly by contrast, and he has definitely succeeded.
Kill A Celebrity is an incredibly well-made manifestation of Lind’s absolute disgust with everything that has happened in the world around him. It is tight, heavy, and most importantly, thought-provoking.
Kill A Celebrity will never get the respect it deserves because it harkens to much to the old-school style of hardcore, and it seems that the hardcore scene has moved on to a different style, leaving the veterans behind. This is too bad, because Ramallah shows off everything that was great about the old days.
