Dealing in hardcore punk that's punctuated with explosive fits of sonic violence, Ceremony formed in the California Bay area in 2005. With a sound that fused the no-nonsense hardcore of bands like Black Flag and Suicidal Tendencies with the unpredictable outbursts of Dillinger Escape Plan, the band cultivated a brutal sound that owed just as much to power violence as it did to old-school punk. In 2006, the band made their full-length debut with Violence, Violence, a 13-song, 13-minute long album that found the band exploding onto the scene in a burst of unfiltered aggression. The quintet followed up with a pair of releases, 2008's Still, Nothing Moves You and 2010's Rohnert Park, released on Bridge 9 Records. The band eventually began to tinker with their sound, tempering their raw, aggressive approach with post-punk influences like Wire and the Fall. After a surprising move to indie giant Matador, the band debuted their new sound in 2012 with the release of their fourth album, Zoo. By the time of 2015's L-Shaped Man, traces of their hardcore roots were all but gone in favor of a more melodic, brooding sound that recalled bands like Joy Division and Bauhaus. ~ Gregory Heaney