CEREMONY
ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM ‘The L-Shaped Man’
Out 15th May on Matador
+ SHARE TWO NEW TRACKS ‘The Separation’ + ‘The Understanding’
Ceremony are due to release their fifth studio album, The L-Shaped Man, taking inspiration from singer Ross Farrar’s recent breakup as the basis for exploration in this upcoming release. It has been said that the best records are the ones that dive deep and examine human sadness – making sense of it and presenting it in a universal form.
In order to tell Farrar’s story, Ceremony have almost completely stripped back the propulsive hardcore of their previous records, turning every angry outburst into simmering despair. “We’ve always tried to be minimalists in writing, even if it’s loud or fast or abrasive,” says lead guitarist Anthony Anzaldo. “It’s really intense when I hear it. Not in a way where you turn everything up to ten. Things are so bare, you’re holding this one note for so long and you don’t now where it’s going-to me, that’s intensity.” That intensity is apparent on “Exit Fears,” the first full song on the record. It meticulously pairs Justin Davis’ loping bassline, which pulls the track along, with Anzaldo’s icy, minimal guitar work. It brings to mind some alternate version of Joy Division that hasn’t quite lost all hope. It gets close to exploding, but instead plays the shadows, never quite rising above a nervous simmer.
“A lot of the content has to do with loss, and specifically the loss of someone who you care deeply about,” Farrar says. “There is no way for you to go through something like this artistically and not have really strong emotions of loss and pain. There’s not really any way to hide that.”
WATCH: ‘The Separation’ + ‘The Understanding’
DIRECT LINK: https://youtu.be/3ou_ohqC-4c
Farrar, for his part, is singing with a new kind of intensity, his baritone swooping and retreating from stressed angst to unsettling near-mutter as he sings, “You told your friends you were fine/ you thought you were fine too…” and later, “nothing is ever fine/ nothing ever feels right/ you have to tell yourself you tried.” It’s the first of many lyrically direct moments, and it should be hard to listen to, but Ceremony have so effortlessly nailed the sound of sadness that it feels great to live inside for awhile.
The sound is abetted by producer John Reis, who honed his sound in seminal bands like Rocket from the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, and Hot Snakes. Much of the gravelly aggression he experimented with in those bands is present on The L-Shaped Man.
There’s a story behind the title too. “I was speaking to our driver Stephen while on tour,” Farrar says. “We were talking about men in general and what shape they are…their body type. I said, ‘I guess men are in the shape of an L. The torso is straight. Vertical. And then you have the little feet at the end.’ There’s this painter named Leslie Lerner who was living in San Francisco in the ’70s and ’80s and made these beautiful paintings. He died on my 21st birthday. A lot of the record is about the similarities in our ideas. In what we’re trying to make. Things that have to do with love and losing love.”
Pre-order the album on iTunes (NZ$18.99) here and get instant downloads of ‘The Separation’ and ‘The Understanding’ + iTunes exclusive bonus track ‘Vivication’ and iTunes exclusive pre-order only bonus track, ‘The Hide’. Both bonus tracks will be delivered with the album on 15th May release date…
Ceremony – The L-Shaped Man
Tracklist:
1. Hibernation
2. Exit Fears
3. Bleeder
4. Your Life In France
5. Your Life In America
6. The Separation
7. The Pattern
8. Root Of The World
9. The Party
10. The Bridge
11. The Understanding
Ceremony online:
