Ceremony

Ceremony have been riding a wave of hardcore hype for some time now, and if Scared People is any indication, they should stay afloat for quite some time.

On this new 7", packed with five new songs and one Negative FX cover, the Bay Area outfit continue to prove they're more than just Infest updated for the new millennium. Opener "It Rained Today Inside My Head" begins with subtle, pulsating taps on the toms and builds to reveal itself as one of the band's signature, stomping, mid-tempo ragers. "Mothers and Fathers" takes a similar approach in an even more condensed amount of time, but it's just as menacing -- a word that often seems to work well when describing Ceremony's sound.

Meanwhile, "The Lines in My Forehead" should be recognizable to any fan of the band's Violence Violence -- it's thrashy, lightning fast and vocally indecipherable, just like most of that album's tracks. "Making with the Stale Air" is a cool, 36-second blast with constant changes in vocal and drum tempos, while "Every Corner a Liquor Store" combines a few of the band's best traits.

The act tackles the NegFX cover of "Feel Like a Man" with aplomb -- they nail the opening riff and practically sample the gang vocals, with the same camaraderie of the group-shouted chorus.

There's a lot of hyperbole thrown around this genre sometimes, and Ceremony is no exception. However, one listen to Scared People and it's hard to argue it isn't warranted.

STREAM
Mothers and Fathers