Zoo

It’s not surprising that Matador scooped up this Bay Area five-piece. Ceremony are hardcore at heart, but there’s an underlying weirdness that brings to mind labelmates Fucked Up and Mission of Burma as well as early Butthole Surfers. Yes, artiness and snottiness can coexist. Ceremony’s fourth full-length—and first for Matador—doesn’t pummel like its predecessors, but there’s still enough power here to satiate crusty heshers. Zoo trades in the minute-long bursts of rage found on the band’s aptly titled debut Violence Violence for weightier compositions that allow more room for moving parts. “Citizen” and “Ordinary People” still aim for the throat, but on songs like “Hotel” and “Repeating the Circle” the guitars are wiry and even jangly, while singer Ross Farrar’s vocals are less bark and more warbly drawl (at times sounding uncannily like Mission of Burma’s Clint Conley). It’s a natural and honest evolution that began showing itself on 2010’s Rohnert Park. Ceremony may not be as angry, but they’re still heavy as fuck. With Zoo the cerebral becomes just as potent as the visceral—and in a very compelling way.