Ceremony – ‘The L-Shaped Man’

So often when a bands sound has progressed to a point where there is very little in common with the sound they started with, it usually divides opinion and finds fans at completely opposite poles. This then leads to the usual comments of “I wish they sounded like their old stuff” or “they are sell outs” and similar, however if you put yourself in a musicians shoes would you really be content to make the same record over and over again? You probably wouldn’t. No one in their right mind would want make regressive music, and that’s the beauty of being in a position where you have artistic license to create the music you feel best suits the place you are in, which is exactly what Ceremony have done with ‘The L-Shaped Man’.

If you look back through their timeline, there has been a natural progression with every record they have made. Granted, no one could have expected the band that made such aggressive records as ‘Violence Violence’ and ‘Still Nothing Moves You’ would sound like they do now, but with everything Ceremony release, you should always enter their records with an “Expect the Unexpected” mindset. The seeds were sown for a creative growth from ‘Rohnert Park’ which saw them diverge from typical hardcore punk structures and song writing, and paved the way for their 2012 album ‘Zoo’ where they moved into full-on post punk territory. This of course brings us to their second album for Matador ‘The L-Shaped Man’, which is once again a step up from the last album.

It would be easy to litter this review with references to Joy Division and New Order, and look at all the things that point to those bands being an influence on Ceremony’s sound. Of course the influence is there, and it’s abundantly clear in the sound, and overall feel of the album, but there is much more to ‘The L-Shaped Man’ than that. It would just make for a lazy review to just focus on those factors, because the record should be looked at as a stand alone piece of art in the modern world of punk, from a band that are not afraid to do whatever the hell they damn well please.

Through the serene, piano-led introduction of ‘Hibernation’ into the driving rhythm of ‘Exit Fears’, it instantly makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and lets you know you are about to become invested in something special. While the abrasive sound of their earlier career is a mere shadow now, Ceremony have not lost any of their intensity. The gloriously shrill guitar work on ‘Your Life In France’ echoes underneath Ross Farrar’s reverb-laced vocals to create a harrowing atmosphere, before leading into the repetitive and low-end bass line of ‘Your Life In America’.

The attraction of Ceremony has always been in Farrar’s lyrics, which from the start have been honest and filled with emotion. With the style they have adopted on ‘The L-Shaped Man’ it makes everything far more decipherable, and able to resonate with the listener more than some of their earlier work. The album focuses on suffering a great loss from someone that you care deeply for, which is redolent through ‘The Separation’ with Farrar’s painful sentiment of “Can you measure the loss?”

With the album being produced by John Reis of Hot Snakes and Drive Like Jehu fame, he has captured the band at their most pure on ‘Root of The World’, which draw heavily from late 70’s post-punk, and there is even a nod towards krautrock on ‘The Party’ as the subtle guitar leads build into uplifting swells. The album closes on the painfully beautiful ‘The Understanding’, which has hues of gothic punk similar to the The Sound, and it would be fair to say the ‘The L-Shaped Man’ carries just as much brooding intensity as their criminally underrated 1981 album ‘From The Lions Mouth’.

You will struggle to find a more well crafted album than ‘The L-Shaped Man’ this year, and the work that Ceremony have put into it should be massively applauded. They have never forgotten where they came from, and even in the live arena these songs will sit well amongst the older, more aggressive material because they have no problem in transcending any sort of boundaries that hardcore or punk could place upon them. With ‘The L-Shaped Man’ Ceremony have irrevocably created a heart-wrenching masterpiece.

GLEN BUSHELL