Ceremony: Zoo, at a glance.

This weekend I have mostly been listening to Ceremony's new LP, 'Zoo', which was kind enough to pop up on Spotify a few days after its release so free booters like me can please our collective ears.

Well, 'pleasing' if probably a word your ears would use about any Ceremony record. Unrelenting, vicious, heavy as a lead meteor perhaps, but no one would ever describe Ceremony as a band that set out to make their music sound nice...

'Zoo' is the band taking another fork in the road that is a career in hardcore punk. At some point every band needs to try something new if they want to achieve longevity and while you wouldn't blame Ceremony if they had used this record to sit back and enjoy their position as one of the best and most subversive hardcore band around what they've done instead proves that they are well and truly here for the long haul.

Well what have they done? In short they have played down the heavy and cut out the screams in favour of a shot at a PiL/Pink Flag aping dissonant masterpiece. Some of this approach was apparent on 2010's 'Rohnert Park' but this time round the new wave styling and low-fi production marks 'Zoo' out as a very different beast. Tracks like 'Repeating The Circle' and 'Video' have a droney, hypnotic quality that is very Public Image Limited while 'Hysteria' and 'Adult' may have the riffs but the toned down guitars and distorted vocals give them the feel of songs written and recorded in the early 80s, not 2012.

This is only a brief look at the album (I've only had the chance to listen to it two or three times) but from what I’ve heard so far this could turn out to be one of the best records of 2012. It’s brave and expansive yet still direct enough to keep your attention. Dissonant masterpiece? Perhaps not, but it’s very close.

Patchx