Ceremony

Originating in Rohnert Park outside the Bay Area during 2005, Ceremony launched as an intense hardcore unit whose brutal attack drew equally from vintage punk and the erratic explosions of grindcore. Progressing beyond their power-violence phase of the mid-2000s, the group shifted toward markedly more tuneful and shadowy terrain. The seething punk force that powered their 2006 debut Violence, Violence had become nearly unrecognizable on the Factory Records-inspired fifth album The L-Shaped Man nine years later, and further electronic accents appeared on 2019's In the Spirit World Now.

Guitarists Ryan Mattos and Anthony Anzaldo, bassist Justin Davis, singer Ross Farrar, and drummer Jake Casarotti formed the band in that town and briefly operated under the name Violent World before adopting Ceremony. They issued the seven-song 7" Ruined in 2005 and quickly delivered their first full-length, Violence, Violence, the following year—a thirteen-track, thirteen-minute burst of unfiltered aggression. Two further releases followed on Bridge 9 Records: Still, Nothing Moves You in 2008 and Rohnert Park in 2010. Ryan Mattos exited in 2011, with Andy Nelson stepping in on guitar.

At that juncture the band began softening its raw aggression through post-punk references to Wire and the Fall. After signing with Matador, they unveiled the revised approach on their fourth album Zoo in 2012. By the time of The L-Shaped Man in 2015, the hardcore lineage had largely vanished, replaced by a melodic, brooding style that evoked Joy Division and Bauhaus. The group also released demo recordings documenting the album's creation process. Their next record surfaced in 2019 as In the Spirit World Now on Relapse Records. That ambitious set expanded the post-punk base with electronic elements and guest vocals from Chelsea Wolfe and Domenic Palermo of Nothing. A companion remix collection titled In the Spirit World Now (Synthetic Remixes) appeared the next year, replacing guitars and live drums with additional electronic layers across multiple tracks.