Californian hardcore punk band Ceremony are no longer a hardcore punk band. This decision is bound to ruffle the feathers of their few remaining hardcore fans who weren’t entirely alienated by the Wire-inspired shifts toward a classic post-punk sound on their previous albums, 2010’s Rohnert Park and 2012’s Zoo, but even those fans would be forced to admit that it wasn’t unforeseeable. Ceremony’s sound has been drifting for years and it’s only on their latest album, The L-Shaped Man, that they’ve really got it right. It isn’t fair to judge the sound on what it isn’t, and this isn’t heavy music anymore. What this is is hardcore-edged post-punk revival, similar in sound to UK bands like Editors or The Cinematics. If that’s not what you’re into, then Ceremony’s new album is not for you. But if you’re interested in seeing how they’ve put it all together, and how their sound compares to other artists in their new and incredibly crowded genre, then read on. You might be surprised at what you find.
After the minimalistic, piano driven opener “Hibernation”, the album starts strong with “Exit Fears,” taking a stuttering 4/4 drum beat similar to the opening of Editors’ “Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors” and layering on bass and parallel guitar lines to create a smoky, film-noir sort of feel. The Wire obviously runs deep, with a similar mix of jangly guitar chords and clear and prominent vocals. It ebbs and flows, twisting around a repeated guitar riff in the verse, and crescendoing into walls of sound in the choruses, like waves crashing against a rocky beach. This is followed by the driving, energetic sound of “Bleeder,” with its rat-a-tat guitars and blast-beat drumming, hardcore elements that emphasise the force behind the accusatory vocals. The guitar tone is buzzy and unusually lo-fi, while the mixing is crisp and professional, an interesting midpoint between D.I.Y. and radio-friendly rock that creates a subtle tension, like a threat of hidden violence that could explode at any time. You get the same feeling from tracks like “Root of The World,” with its shoegaze guitars and howling vocals, or the raw, emotional anguish of “The Bridge,” with its sing-a-long, miserable lyrics and hoarsely shouted choruses. The best moments of the album occur on tracks like this one where the vestiges of traditional punk and hardcore mix with the more consistent indie influences to create this unstable hybrid that feels a knife’s edge away from completely falling apart. At its worst, it’s just a little boring, with competent but typical tracks like “The Party” or “The Understanding” neither dragging the album down nor being interesting enough to stand out. It’s really an album’s worth of fantastic singles, some of which will leave you in awe, and others that you’ll want to dance along to even if they remind you of songs you’ve heard before.
You might accuse Ceremony of selling out, and fair enough — this is probably the most marketable music they’ve ever made. But there’s too much going on here for that hypothesis to fit. Music that sounds like this isn’t really popular anymore. While most people will accept that Interpol and Editors were fantastic for the time, they’re considered to be “of the time” today as well. And the on-going newer wave of post-punk revival seems to be less focused on pop hooks and melody, and more on lo-fi mixes of 90’s indie with 80’s punk. This album isn’t really any of that. It’s off-trend, and more-importantly, consistent with everything the band has done before. It feels like a labour of love, and it was an incredibly risky one. They could have killed the last of their traditional fanbase, while failing to stand out enough from other bands to attract any kind of new attention. But that didn’t happen here. Ceremony’s new album might be rubbish hardcore, but it’s fantastic post-punk revival. And it’s really the hardcore elements that push it over the edge: the drums, or the anger behind the vocals. That’s where the album shines; it sets their sound apart from everybody else and hopefully it’s an angle they’ll continue to explore on future releases. But either way, The L-Shaped Man is a memorable record. You might not approve of what they’re doing here, but they do it very well. And anyway, Ceremony named themselves after a Joy Division song. Doesn’t it make more sense they’d sound a bit like this?
The L-Shaped Man is out May 19 through Matador.
