Ceremony don’t mince words. They also don’t waste time. Their latest album, Still Nothing Moves You, is no exception. This effort finds the Bay Area quintet belting through fifteen hardcore punk songs in twenty-one minutes. Lyrically, their subject covers well worn terrain, including, e.g., loneliness (”I can’t seem to make things right/I can’t seem to erase my mind/more nothing than negative space”) and religion (”I won’t be skullfucked by faith/ I am the upside down cross”). So, what’s the catch? Sonically, Ceremony are surely stretching the boundaries of the hardcore punk genres. First there’s Ross Farrar’s vocals which, shouted, in the Ian Mackaye sort of way, create a definite sense of urgency. And then there’s the instruments. In a way they’re typical of other bands in the genre, e.g., F-Minus. But in other instances they’re more akin to something from a Khanate album. But in the end you really can’t go with the brutality of a good hardcore punk album. Here’s a video of them playing at Berkeley’s 924 Gilman St. venue. (Davey Havok of AFI even joins them on stage for a cover of Project X’s “Straight edge revenge.”)
Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few. - George Bernard Shaw
