Ceremony (punk band)

History

Ceremony got their start in Rohnert Park, California, cutting their first demo in December 2004. They began as Violent World but switched to Ceremony, taking the name from a New Order song. Their debut EP, Ruined, came out on Malfunction Records in 2005, and their first full-length, Violence Violence, followed soon after, featuring re-recorded versions of those earlier tracks. In 2008, they put out Still Nothing Moves You on Bridge 9 Records.

One critic called it "hardcore's equivalent of Hiroshima," and it landed on Billboard's Top Internet and Top Heatseekers charts that August. After hitting the road with Blacklisted, Converge, and AFI, they released their third album, Rohnert Park, in 2010. The next year, they signed with Matador Records, and their final Bridge 9 release was a covers-only EP, tackling songs by Urban Waste, Pixies, Crisis, Eddie and the Subtitles, Vile, and Wire. Their Matador debut, Zoo, dropped in March 2012 and leaned into a proto-punk sound reminiscent of Wire's Pink Flag.

On May 19, 2015, they issued The L-Shaped Man, which pushed further into post-punk territory, drawing comparisons to Joy Division. Three singles came from it: "Your Life in France" and the double-A side "The Separation"/"The Understanding." Their sixth album, In the Spirit World Now, arrived on Relapse Records on August 23, 2019, with three singles: "Turn Away the Bad Thing," the title track, and "Presaging the End."

Musical style

Ceremony's sound has shifted dramatically over time, starting with the powerviolence and hardcore punk of their early work before moving through '80s hardcore, post-hardcore, garage rock, post-punk, and new wave. Their early style was called "fast, brutal hardcore" and compared to Infest, Crossed Out, and No Comment. Key influences include The Ventures, Joy Division, T.S.O.L., Christian Death, and The Beach Boys, with additional admiration for Oasis, Violent Femmes, Prince, Ramones, and The Cure.