A band that lists
Joy Division,
Suicidal Tendencies,
Pink Floyd, and
Tom Waits as its chief influences is not something you come across very often. But there's a first for everything -- welcome to the wild and unpredictable world of
Ceremony. On their 2008 release,
Still, Nothing Moves You, the Bay Area-based group mixes all these aforementioned varied influences into a blender and comes up with a hard-hitting style that is quite comparable to the freak-out cacophony of bands like
the Dillinger Escape Plan. The whole album is one non-stop bludgeoning of sonic fury; pick any selected cut ("He -- God -- Has Favored Our Undertakings" is a particularly pleasant little ditty, sporting the jolly old lyric "I won't be skullfucked by faith!"), hit play, and simply run for cover. As heard throughout
Still, Nothing Moves You,
Ceremony are all about unpredictability and the sonic crush. ~ Greg Prato