Ceremony Have Been at This for 21 Years — “Death Destruction Mayhem” Sounds Like They Mean Every One of Them

Ceremony have spent 21 years proving that punk adaptability and punk integrity are not mutually exclusive. Ross Farrar, Anthony Anzaldo, Andy Nelson, Justin Davis, and Jake Casarotti have moved from hardcore to post-punk and back again without ever losing the thread of what the band actually is. Tell Me Your Dream, their seventh album for Relapse, arrives August 7, and it pulls everything forward at once: searing breadth, bristling hardcore, anthemic post-punk, and a fundamental inspiration drawn from Discharge, Crass, and the anarcho-punk bands that first gave certain members of Ceremony their political vocabulary as teenagers.

“Death Destruction Mayhem” is the new single and a strong indicator of where the record lands. It reunites the band with producer John Reis (Rocket from the Crypt, Hot Snakes), who worked on the acclaimed 2015 album The L-Shaped Man and this time essentially joined the band for the sessions. “We gave him the keys,” says Anzaldo. “John understands what it’s like to be in every position.” The trust runs deep, and the record sounds like it.

A North American headline tour kicks off September 9 in Montreal and runs through November. Pre-order the album below.

Pre-order Tell Me Your Dream ↗

1“Prograde”

2“Other Hells”

3“Madness”

4“Dark Summer”

5“Deep Down Where I Belong”

6“Antenna”

7“Justify”

8“Death Destruction Mayhem”

9“10 Planets”

10“Paradise”