[7.5/10] Over the last three years, Bay Area outfit Ceremony have been seriously making a name for themselves as one of the stranger and more experimental outfits within the punk/hardcore scene.

And while some of the band’s previous releases such as 2005’s Ruined EP, 2006’s full-length effort Violence Violence and 2007’s Scared People EP were perhaps a little limited in scope, the same can’t be said for their second full-length effort Still Nothing Moves You.

The five piece act (comprising of vocalist Ross Farrar, guitarists Ryan Mattos and Anthony Anzaldo, bassist Justin Davis and drummer Jake Cazarotti) open up the album with “Dead Moon California (Midnight In Solitude),” which is a track that essentially starts out with some twisted bass lines that slowly build up in speed to what eventually leads to a climatic leveling off of anger-driven punk rock. Fuelling the band’s chaotic noise is Farrar, whose tortured vocal presence is nothing short of intense and attention grabbing.

“The Difference Between Looking And Seeing” (which features a guest appearance from Life Long Tragedy vocalist Cody Sullivan) is a seething barrage of hardcore noise that only lets up with a couple of experimental (and noisy) rhythmic passages, while “Eraser Making Its Way Its Only Job,” “Twenty Four Hour Fever Watch,” “Carrying Flowers” and “In Facile” (which again features Sullivan on guest vocals) are seething masses of negativity and noisy experimental pieces that mix both hardcore and punk in the rawest form.

But it’s not all fast paced and filled with venom, as the band prove of the instrumental pieces “Vagrant” and “Overcast.” It’s on these two pieces that the band stretch out beyond what they’ve previously accomplished, and show the growing maturity within their songwriting. Further proof can be heard in the mid-paced “Learn/Without” and in most of “Fading Sounds Of Your Life”, while a predominately punk rock sensibility can be heard in “Birth. Conspire. Be. Upset.,” “Entropy: No Meaning Is Also An Answer” (which features Blacklisted’s George Hirsch on guest vocals) and “Uneven Pavement.”

It may not be an easy listen, or even to the taste of most hardcore/punk rock fans, but Still Nothing Moves You is undeniably one interesting listen, and undoubtedly Ceremony’s strongest release to date.

www.myspace.com/ceremony