Ceremony
Still, Nothing Moves You
Bridge Nine
If Still, Nothing Moves You, California hardcore band Ceremony’s full length Bridge Nine Records release, doesn’t give you a serious jolt then you may not have a pulse. I’m not saying that you have to love it, or even be able to tolerate its blistering onslaught, but this album’s intense fury is impossible to ignore.
A quiet, slow build up on the opening track, “Dead Moon in California (Midnight in Solitude),” teases you into turning up the volume so that when the hammer finally falls – as the song segues into the wild musical anarchy of “The Difference Between Looking and Seeing” – it falls heavy, and it falls LOUD! For the following 21 minutes, the incessant madness of guitar, bass, and drums combined with the violent spewing of vocalist Ross Farrar will shock you into submission. “He-God Has Favored Our Undertakings” is perhaps the most vicious song I’ve heard in a while. Crank it up, and read the lyrics. You’ll feel your lips pull back, your teeth grind themselves into a powder, and eyebrows stand on edge. These songs will pound the inside of your brain… in a good way.
The band cites some odd influences: Tom Waits, Joy Division, Pink Floyd. I hear none of these, but the fact that buried beneath this fine hardcore lies a foundation of a broader musical influence draws me into it all even deeper. The influences that I hear are Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Suicidal Tendencies, and a little bit of Danzig on the moodier tracks like “Fading Sounds of Your Life.”
Strap yourself in before pressing play on the best hardcore record you’ll hear all year!
Ceremony: http://www.ceremonyhc.com
