Zoo

The Bay Area quintet's first record for Matador feels a long way from its powerviolence beginnings, with a cleaned-up sound and a focus on garage-rock hooks.

Check out our album review of Artist's Zoo on Rolling Stone.com.

‘Zoo’ is a change in style. Unfortunately, it feels as though such a change was made simply for the sake of it.

Hysteria, the lead single from Ceremony's Matador debut, hints towards an experience far removed from the grinding power-violence of the Californian quintet's early work: the rhythm section rests a couple of notches above mid-tempo, and, most notably, vocalist Ross Farrar's pissed-off snarl is replaced with a semi-melodic auto-drawl, which – intentionally or not – cries out for comparisons to OFF!/Circle Jerks frontman Keith Morris.