Ceremony – Still Nothing Moves You

Goddamn. Though not running around in the same field sonically, I’m getting the same sense of “Holy shit, these guys are fucking insane” that I did the first time I heard BOTCH – just that same sense of fury and relentlessness. At least for the first five songs, which blaze by in about as many minutes – while the 6th is nothing more than a guitar playing a few notes while running through an effects processor; a decision that pretty effectively kills the momentum of Still Nothing Moves You. However, they pick right back up on the 7th song, “Twenty-Four Hour Fever Watch”, the entirely of which lasts about thirty seconds and consists of two chords and still manages to be punishing as shit.

I’m trying to come up with actual musical references for these guys and am having a hard time of it. There’s the sense of playing around with a sense of impending doom that I associate with COLISEUM, though CEREMONY’s way more immediate and straight-forward than them. They occasionally come across as barely holding their shit together musically, until they bust out with the frenetic and polyp-riddled vocal shredding of a modernized and way more menacing CHRIST ON PARADE or something and you’ve got to wonder just how well they can really play. Then they’ll bust out a few songs (the oddly titled “Eraser Making Its Way Its Only Job” comes to mind) where they could be mistaken for the near-melodic thrash of CAREER SUICIDE on a really, really bad day.

Not sure if you’ve noticed this, but every goddamn band I’ve mentioned in comparison, I’ve mentioned that CEREMONY sounds meaner, more fevered and fucked up. Then consider the pedigree of the bands I’ve mentioned and that should give you an idea of the full-on craziness you’d be privy to here. Couple this with the fact that these are some of the bleakest, most venomous lyrics I’ve read in some time, and you’re looking at one hell of a party. I’d have given Still Nothing Moves You a five out of five were it not for those very few instances where they slow things down with those awkwardly-placed interludes. Thankfully though, they’re brief intermissions before we’re right back in the shit.

These guys have really thrown the supposed Bridge Nine template right out the window – two points should probably be given to the label for releasing something that’s admittedly jaw-dropping but a little out of their usual forte. Really nice attack all around.