Ceremony, Zoo, Hard Rock from California

When the hard-edged, power-chording wall of sound guitar band thing is done right, it is an art form. "Who cares?" some might ask. Well now, I do. When the world of music has such a gaggle of styles going on all at the same time, every genre has a few examples of its peculiarities at its best, and those are the ones I tend to like, obviously. Along with innovation wherever it may occur.

So I like Ceremony. I like their album Zoo (Matador) because it is all that I'm talking about above. It's not just a bunch of power chords and some hard-shouting vocals. It hangs together. It rocks with energy. It has a quasi-punk aggressiveness. "Post-hardcore" is what somebody called it on a Google listing I passed by on my way to get the cover art. Well, OK. What the "post" part may be I am not actually sure about. No death-exorcist vocals? Arrangements that have space in them? And there's a hint of punk-surf-retro too. Maybe.

The point is that this is a good band, doing what they do with enough variety that it goes beyond formula. So that works for me. You judge for yourself.